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Authorship 


OF  THE 


JFouR  Gospels. 


William  Marvin. 


3525-55 
.4.M39 


■  PRINCETON,     N.     J. 


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Division .  .JIjnQ  .tL.  .vt?.  >»J  w 

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Number 


AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 


External  Evidences, 


BY 

^WILLIAM'^IAR-VIlSr, 


EX-JUDGE    OF   THE    DISTRICT   COURT    OF    THE   UNITED    STATES 
FOR   THE   SOUTHERN   DISTRICT   OF   FLORIDA,   AND 

AUTHOR    OF 
*'  A   TREATISE  ON    THE   LAW   OF   WRECK   AND    SALVAGE." 


ALBANY,  N.  Y. : 
PKINTED  BY  WEED,  PARSONS  &  CO. 

1885. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  eighty-flve, 

By  WILLIAM  MARVIN, 

In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


:Y      PiiliiUlilTUlI 


%  TK30L0GI0: 


PKEFACE 


In  the  summer  of  1881,  at  the  Pigeon  Cove  PIo- 
tel,  situated  on  Cape  Ann,  Massachusetts,  I  became 
acquainted  with  an  intelligent  gentleman,  aged  about 
seventy  years,  who  resided  in  Buffalo  and,  who,  like 
myself,  was  staying  at  the  hotel  for  the  benefit  of 
the  sea  air.  At  an  early  period  in  our  acquaintance 
he  introduced  the  subject  of  the  Christian  religion  as  a 
topic  of  conversation,  and,  during  several  weeks  after- 
ward, seemed  quite  disposed  to  talk  on  this  subject, 
whenever  an  opportunity  offered.  In  one  of  the 
earliest  of  our  conversations,  he  asked  me  if  I  had 
read  the  "  Gospel  of  Marcion."  I  replied  :  "  No  ! 
I  do  not  so  much  as  know  there  is  a  gospel  known 
by  that  name,  I  never  heard  of  it  before."  "  Then," 
rejDlied  he,  "  you  are  not  well  informed  about  matters 
in  connection  with  the  early  history  of  Christianity. 
You  ought  to  read  the  Gospel  of  Marcion."  I  had 
read  the  chapters  in  the  ecclesiastical  histories,  written 
by  Moslieim,  Neander,  and  Schaff,  which  treat  of  the 
Apostolic  and  primitive  church,  and  I  remembered  to 
have  read  in  them  something  about  a  christian  sect 
called  the  "  Marcionites,"  but  I  could  not  recollect 


4.  PREFACE. 

that  I  had  ever  read  any  thing  about  a  written  gospel 
called  after  the  name  of  the  founder  of  that  sect.  I 
begged  my  friend  to  enlighten  me.  "  Why,  sir,"  said 
he  "  the  gospel  of  Marcion  is  the  only  original  and 
true  Gospel.  Our  gospels  are  all  later,  and  are  all 
spurious.  If  you  want  to  read  the  least  untrust- 
worthy account  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  you  must 
read  the  Gospel  of  Marcion."  I  requested  him  to 
inform  me  where  I  could  get  this  gospel.  He 
replied  that  a  very  clever  book  had  been  written 
by  Charles  B.  Waite,  and  recently  published  in 
Chicago,  and  in  that  could  be  found  the  gospel  he 
had  spoken  of.  He  thought  the  book  could  be  bought 
at  some  one  of  the  book-stores  in  Boston.  On  my 
way  home,  I  stopped  at  Boston  and  bought  Mr. 
Waite's  book.  At  Albany  I  bought  the  Ante- 
Nicene  Christia/n  Libra?^,  in  24  volumes.  Super- 
natural Religion^  Westcott  on  the  Canon  of  the 
New  Testament,  and  a  number  of  other  books,  which 
have  more  or  less  to  say  on  the  subject  we  had 
talked  about.  I  afterward  bought  Strauss'  Life 
of  Jesus.  On  getting  home  I  began  to  read  these 
and  other  books  of  a  similar  character  and  to  make 
notes   and  memoranda.     The  result  is  before  the 

reader. 

WM.  MARVIN. 

Skaneateles,  N.  Y.,  July,  1885. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

Preface 3 


Chapter  I. 

Statement  of  the  case 7 

Plan  of  this  treatise 10 

Chapter  II. 

Evidence 12 

Testimony  of  Origen,  13;  of  Tertullian,  14;  of  Clement,  20; 
Syriac  and  Latin  versions,  24;  Testimony  of  Irenseus,  26  ; 
Canon  of  Muratori,  39;  Testimony  of  Theophilus,  46 ;  of 
Tatian,  46;  of  Justin,  47;  of  Papias,  71;  of  Marcion,  91;  of 
Basilides,  93 ;  of  Eusebius,  94  ;  of  Josephus,  96 ;  of  Tacitus 
and  Pliny  and  Suetonius,  97;  of  the  Apostolic  Fathers  — 
Clement,  Ignatius,  Polycarp,  Barnabas  and  Hermas,  99 ; 
Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  107;  Testimony  of  the  Gos- 
pels, 112. 

Chapter  III. 
A  Brief  Argument 114 


6  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  IV. 

PAGE 

Uncorrupted  Text 126 

Manuscripts,  127;  the  Codex  Vaticanus  and  Codex  Sinaiticus, 
128;  Codex  Alexandrinus,  129 ;  Extract  from  Genuineness  of 
the  Gospels,  130;  Collect,  132. 

Appendix. 
A.  —  Memories  of  Men 134 

5.  —  Apocryphal  Gospels,  The  Protevangelion,  135; 
The  Arabic  Gospel  op  the  Infancy,  136  ;  The  Gospel  of 
Thomas,  137;  The  Acts  of  Pilate,  138. 

G.  —  Lives  of  the  Evangelists,  141. 


CHAPTER  I. 

STATEMENT  OF  THE  CASE. 


The  German  writers,  Strauss,  Baur,  and  Eich- 
horn,  and  the  English  author  of  Sxijiernattiral  Re- 
ligion^ and  the  American  author,  Charles  B.  Waite, 
and  others,  have  asserted,  that  there  does  not  exist 
sufficient  evidence  to  justify  the  belief  that  the  four 
Gospels  were  written  before  the  last  half  of  the 
second  century.  Mr.  Waite  says :  "  The  time  when 
the  four  Gospels  were  written  cannot  be  definitely 
determined,  but  may  be  approximately  stated  thus : 
Luke,  A.  D.  170 ;  Mark,  175 ;  John,  178  ;  Matthew, 
180.'"  It  follows  that,  in  the  opinion  of  these 
writers,  they  were  not  written  by  Matthew,  the  pub- 
lican, by  Mark,  the  companion  of  Peter  and  Paul, 
by  Luke,  the  physician,  and  John,  the  beloved  dis- 
ciple, whose  names  they  respectively  bear,  nor  by 
any  persons  who  were  eye  or  ear  witnesses  of  the 
facts  recorded,  or  who  lived  at  the  same  time  that 
Jesus  or  any  of  his  Apostles  lived ;  and,  that  conse- 


'  History  of  the  Christian  Religion  to  tlie  year  A.  D.  200, 
by  Charles  B.  "Waite;  published  in  1881;  p.  317. 


8       AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

quently  they  are  not,  iu  the  opinion  of  these  writers, 
trust-worthy  histories.  And,  though  they  admit 
that  the  Gospels  may,  and  probably  do,  record  the 
teachings  of  Jesus  with  a  considerable  degree  of  ac- 
curacy —  such  teachings  having  been  preserved  and 
handed  down  by  oral  tradition  during  the  first  cen- 
tury and  a  half,  or  by  other  gospels  denominated  by 
Christians  Ajjooryphal  —  yet  the  miracles,  they  as- 
sert, are  myths,  or  fanciful  stories,  invented  by 
Christians  after  the  crucifixion  and  before  our  Gos- 
pels were  written. 

If  it  should  be  admitted  that  the  Gospels  were 
not  written  before  the  time  mentioned  by  these 
writers,  it  would  not  follow  from  such  admission 
that  they  are  not  trustworthy  histories ;  for  it  might 
easily  be  that  the  writers  related  such  matters  of 
fact,  and  such  only,  as  they  found  recorded  by  cred- 
ible eye  and  ear  witnesses,  in  documents  written  at 
an  earlier  day.  Few  historians  are  themselves  wit- 
nesses of  the  events  they  narrate,  and  yet,  if  they 
have  made  an  honest  and  impartial  use  of  original 
materials,  their  histories  are  generally  considered  as 
trustworthy.  Mark  and  Luke  were  not  eye  and  ear 
witnesses  of  the  events  they  recorded  in  their  re- 
spective histories  of  Jesus.  Nor  was  Mr.  Bancroft 
an  eye  or  ear  witness  of  the  transactions  he  has  re- 


STATEMENT  OF  CASE.  9 

lated  in  his  history  of  the  United  States,  and,  yet, 
these  several  histories  arc  generally  thought  to  be 
trustworthy. 

Nor  would  it  follow  from  such  admission  that  the 
miracles  recorded  in  the  Gospels  are  myths.  It  is 
true  that  the  later  you  fix  the  dates  of  the  Gospels, 
the  longer  time  you  would  be  giving  for  myths  to 
grow  up;  but  it  would  not  follow  from  such  later 
date  that  myths  would  certainly  grow  up,  or  would 
be  recorded  in  such  later  Gospels.  If  the  Gospels 
M^ere  written  in  the  days  of  the  Apostles,  sufficient 
time  for  myths  to  grow  up  could  not  have  clasped 
between  the  occurrence  and  the  recording  of  the 
events.  In  this  case,  the  story  of  the  Gospels  would 
in  all  probability  have  been  recorded  in  its  original 
purity. 

Evidences  in  relation  to  the  authorship  of  the 
Gospels  may  be  divided  into  two  branches  —  the  ex- 
ternal and  the  internal.  The  external  consist  mostly 
of  notices  of  the  Gospels  found  in  writings  composed 
in  the  early  part  of  the  Christian  era.     These  may 

also  be  properly  called  historic  evidences.  The  in- 
ternal consist  of  the  matter  of  the  Gospels,  their 
internal  structure,  their  style,  their  agreement  or 
want  of  agreement  between  them,  and  considera- 
tions of  a  similar   character   growing   out  of   the 


lo     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

Gospels  themselves.  I  propose,  in  this  little  treatise, 
to  consider  the  external  evidences  only ;  leaving  the 
internal,  which  constitute  much  the  larger  and  more 
difficult  part  of  the  main  question,  to  be  discussed 
by  persons  much  better  qualiiied  for  the  task  than  I 
am.  I  think  a  litttle  knowledge  on  a  subject  of  so 
great  interest  is  better  than  total  ignorance.  My 
plan  is,  to  give  the  reader  verhatiTYi  extracts  of  all 
the  passages  I  find  in  the  writings  of  authors  living 
in  the  first  and  second  centuries,  touching  the  ques- 
tion under  consideration,  accompanying  them  with 
brief  accounts  of  the  writers.  I  shall,  also,  make  a 
few  comments  on  the  testimony  of  each  witness,  as 
I  pass  on,  and,  in  the  end,  draw  my  conclusions  as 
to  the  effect  of  the  whole  testimony.  By  giving 
verhatim  statements  of  the  evidence  and  fair  ac- 
counts of  the  character  of  the  different  witnesses, 
the  reader  will  be  furnished  with  the  proper  data, 
and  may  deduce  therefrom  his  own  independent  con- 
clusions as  to  the  result  of  the  proof.  He  need  not 
adopt  my  conclusions,  unless  they  appear  to  him  to 
be  correct.  Of  course,  I  do  not  publish  this  little 
book  for  the  benefit  of  the  learned,  who  do  not  need 
it,  but  for  the  benefit  of  tlie  unlearned,  who  do.  It 
M'ill  save  the  latter  much  time  and  trouble  in  looking* 
up  the  testimony  for  themselves. 


STATEMENT  OF  CASE.  n 

1S.0  question  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Gospels, 
but  only  the  question  of  their  date  and  authorship, 
is  involved  in  my  inquiry.  I  shall,  therefore,  speak 
of  them  and  their  writers  with  the  same  degree  of 
freedom,  that  I  would  of  any  secular  books  and 
their  authors. 

The  first  three  are  called  "  Synoptical  Gospels  " 
by  critics,  because  they  agree  so  well  in  narrating 
the  same  events  in  similar  language.  They  agree 
with  each  other  near  enough  to  show,  that  the 
authors  had  access  to  the  same  sources  of  inform- 
ation, and  they  differ  enough  to  show,  that  they  did 
not  copy  from  each  other,  but  wrote  independently 
one  of  the  other.  The  Synoptic  Gospels  treat 
mostly  of  the  life  of  Jesus  in  Galilee;  John's  Gos- 
pel, mostly  of  His  life  in  Judea. 


12     AUTHORSHIP  OF   THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 


CHAPTER  11. 

EVIDENCE. 


The  first  witness  I  shall  call  is  Origen,  siirnamed 
Adamantius,  on  account  of  liis  iron  industry.  He 
was  born  of  Greek  Christian  parents,  at  Alexandria, 
Egypt,  in  the  year  185.  This  city  was  at  this  time 
the  most  renowned  seat  of  learning  in  the  world. 
He  was  educated  mostly  at  the  well-known  Catechet- 
ical School  in  that  city.  This  school  was  at  the 
time  under  the  direction  of  the  accomplished  and 
celebrated  Clement.  Origen  became,  while  still 
very  young,  master  of  that  school.  He  studied 
every  thing.  "His  knowledge  embraced,"  says 
Philip  Schaff,  "all  departments  of  the  philology, 
philosophy  and  theology  of  his  day."  He  was 
equally  admu'ed  by  pagans  and  Christians  for  his 
brilliant  talents  and  wonderful  learning.  He  be- 
came a  voluminous  writer.  Among  other  works  he 
wrote  Commentaries  on  the  Bible ^  including  the 
New  Testament.  He  wrote  the  Hexapla^  which 
was  the  first  polyglot  Bible,  but  covered  the  Old 
Testament  only.     It  contained  in  six  columns  the 


TESTIMONY  OF  O  RIG  EN.  13 

original  text  in  two  forms  —  in  Hebrew  and  Greek 
characters ;  and  the  four  Greek  versions  —  of  the 
Septuagint,  of  Aquila,  of  Symmachus  and  of  The- 
odotion.  By  placing  the  different  versions  side  by 
side  in  separate  columns,  they  could  be  easily  com- 
pared. Pie  traveled  extensively,  at  different  periods 
of  his  life,  and  had  a  large  acquaintance  with  men. 
Under  the  Decian  persecution  he  was  cast  into 
prison,  cruelly  tortured  and  condemned  to  the  stake, 
but  acquired  his  liberty  by  the  death  of  that  em- 
peror, and  died  a  natural  death  at  Tyre,  at  the  age 
of  sixty-nine,  in  the  year  253  or  254.* 
In  regard  to  our  Gospels,  he  says: 

^'  But  in  the  first  book  of  his  Commentaries  on 
the  Gospel  of  Matthew,  following  •  the  Ecclesiastical 
Canon,  he  attests  that  he  knows  of  only  four  Gospels, 
as  follows:  'As  I  have  understood  from  tradition, 
respecting  the  four  Gospels,  which  are  the  only  un- 
disputed ones  in  the  whole  church  of  God  through- 
out the  world.  The  first  is  written  according  to 
Matthew,  the  same  that  was  once  a  publican,  but 
afterwards  an  Apostle  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  having 


'  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Eusebius  Pamphilus,  bishop 
of  Csesarea,  in  Palestine,  from  the  days  of  the  apostles  to 
the  year  337;  translated  from  the  Greek  by  Rev.  C.  F. 
Cruse,  A.  M.  Bohn's  edition;  London,  1863.  B.  6,  c.  3, 
3,  6,  36.  History  of  the  Christian  Church,  by  Philip 
Schaff,    §  128.     Neander's   Church  History,  vol.   I,  p.  693. 


14    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

published  it  for  the  Jewish  converts,  wrote  it  in  the 
Hebrew.  The  second  is  according  to  Mark,  who 
composed  it  as  Peter  explained  to  him,  whom  he  also 
acknowledges  as  his  son  in  his  general  Epistle,  say- 
ing, 'The  elect  church  in  Babylon  salutes  you,  as 
also  Mark  my  son.'  And  the  third,  according  to 
Luke,  the  Gospel  commended  by  Paul,  which  was 
Avritten  for  the  converts  from  the  Gentiles  ;  and  last 
of  all  the  Gospel  according  to  John.' '" 

The  next  witness  I  shall  examine  is  Quintus  Sep- 
timius  Florens  Tertullianus.  And  who  is  he  with 
this  long  quadruple  Latin  name  ?  It  is  necessary  to 
know  something  about  the  witness  besides  his  name, 
in  order  to  judge  correctly  of  his  credibility.  Well, 
let  St.  Jerome,  who  flourished  about  the  year  380, 
and  who  was  acquainted  with  nearly  all  the  learning 
of  that  day,  and  was  the  translator  of  the  Bible  into 
the  Latin  language,  answer  the  question.  In  his 
Oatalogus  Scri^torum  Ecclesiasticorum.^  he  says : 
"  Tertullian,  a  presbyter,  the  first  Latin  writer  after 
Victor  and  AjDollonius,  was  a  native  of  the  province 
of  Africa  and  city  of  Carthage,  the  son  of  a  procon- 
sular centurion ;  he  was  a  man  of  a  sharp  and  vehe- 
ment temper,  flourished  under  Severus  and  Anton- 
inus Caracalla,  and  wrote  numerous  works,  which. 


'  E.  H.  E.     B.  VI,  c.  25. 


TESTIMONY  OF  TERTULLIAK  15 

as  thej  are  generally  known,  I  think  it  imnecessarj 
to  jDarticularize.  I  saw  at  Concordia,  in  Ital}'^,  an  old 
man  named  Paiilus.  He  said  that  w^hen  joung  he 
had  met  at  Rome  with  an  aged  amanuensis  of  the 
blessed  Cyprian,  who  told  him,  that  Cyprian  never 
passed  a  day  without  reading  some  portion  of  Ter- 
tullian's  works,  and  used  frequently  to  say,  '  Give 
me  my  master,^  meaning  Tertullian.  After  remain- 
ing a  presbyter  of  the  church  until  he  had  attained 
the  middle  age  of  life,  Tertullian  was,  by  envy  and 
contumelious  treatment  of  the  Roman  clergy,  driv^en 
to  embrace  the  opinions  of  Montanus,  which  he  has 
mentioned  in  several  of  his  works  under  the  title  of 
the  '  New  PropheGy^  He  is  reported  to  have  lived 
to  a  very  advanced  age,  and  to  have  composed  many 
other  works  which  are  not  extant.'"  Neander's 
history  confirms  this  account  of  Tertullian.''  So, 
also,  does  Philip  Schaff's  History  of  the  Christian 
Church^  Schaff  says,  "  he  was  born  at  Carthage 
about  A.  D.  160,  was  the  father  of  Latin  theology 


1  Introductory  notice  prefacing  the  five  books  of  Tcr- 
tnllian  ngainat  Marcion,  translated  by  Peter  Holmes,  D.  D., 
F.  R.  A.  S.,  and  published  in  the  Edinburgh  edition  of  the 
Ante-Nicene  Christian  Library,  vol.  VII. 

"^  Nea7ider's,  History,  vol.  II,  p.  683. 

3  P.  512. 


1 6    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

and  churcli  language,  and  one  of  the  greatest  men 
of  Christian  antiquity.  He  was  converted  from 
paganism  to  Christianity  when  between  thirty  and 
forty  years  of  age." 

Beins:  thus  informed  as  to  the  character  of  our 
witness,  let  us  now  see  what  he  says  in  regard  to  the 
question  we  are  examining.  In  his  fourth  book 
against  Marcion,^  which  was  written  about  the  year 
210,  [his  first  book  having  been  written,  according 
to  his  own  account,  in  the  15th  year  of  the  reign  of 
Severus,  "  Ad  XY  jam  Severi  imperatoris,"  which 
answers  to  the  year  207,'''],  he  says: 

"We  lay  it  down  as  our  first  position,  that  the 
evangelical  Testament^  has  apostles  for  its  authors,  •* 
to  whom  was  assigned  by  the  Lord  Himself  this  office 
of  publishing  the  gospel.  Since,  however,  there  are 
apostolic*  men  also  [associated  in  the  authorship],* 
they  are  yet  not  alone,  but  appear  with  apostles  and 
after  apostles ;  because  the  preaching  of  disciples 
might  be  open  to  the  suspicion  of  an  affectation  of 

1  C.  3.  "^  B.  I,  c.  15.  ^  Instrumentum. 

4  [By  this  canon  of  his,  that  the  true  Gospels  must  have 
for  their  authors  either  apostles  or  companions  and  disciples 
of  apostles,  he  shuts  out  the  false  Gos2-)els  of  the  heretics, 
such  as  the  Ebionites,  Encratites,  Nazarenes,  and  Marciou- 
ites  (Le  Prieur).] 

'^  Apostolicos  [companions  of  the  apostlesj. 

•*  [He  means,  of  course,  St.  Mark  and  St.  Luke.] 


TESTIMONY  OF  TERTULLIAN.  17 

glory,  if  there  did  not  accompany  it'  the  authority  of 
the  masters,  which  means  that  of  Christ,^  for  it  was 
that  which  made  the  apostles  their  masters.  Of  the 
apostles,  therefore,  John  and  Matthew  first  instil^ 
faith  into  us;  whilst  of  apostolic  men,  Luke  and 
Mark  renew  it  afterwards.'*  These  all  start  with  the 
same  principles  of  the  faith, ^  so  far  as  relates  to  the 
one  only  G-od  the  Creator  and  His  Christ,  how  that 
He  was  born  of  the  Virgin,  and  came  to  fulfil^  the 
law  and  the  prophets.  Never  mind'  if  there  does 
occur  some  variation  in  the  order  of  their  narratives, 
provided  that  there  be  agreement  in  the  essential 
matter.  "8 

In  arguing  against  the  followers  of  Marcion's 
heresy,  Tertullian  accuses  Marcion  of  having  muti- 
lated Luke's  Gospel,  under  a  pretense  of  amending 
it,  and  then  claiming,  that  it  was  the  only  true  Gos- 
pel.' This  accusation  was  made  at  an  earlier  day  by 
Irenseus  in  his  work  Against  Heresies^^  where 
he  says :  "  Besides  this,  he  [Marcion]  mutilates  the 
Gospel  which  is  according  to  Luke,  removing  all 
that  is  written  respecting  the  generation  of  the  Lord, 
and  setting  aside  a  great  deal  of  the  teaching  of  the 

Lord."  Having  made  this  accusation,  Tertullian 
then  argiies : 


'  Adsistat  illi.         *  Imiiio  Christi.  ^  Insinuant. 

■•  Instaurant.  *  Isdem  regulis.  ^  Supplementum. 

'  Viderit.  »  De  capite.  »  B,  IV,  c.  5. 

'"  B.  I,  c.  37,  §  3. 
3 


1 8    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

"  On  the  whole,  then,  if  that  is  evidently  more  true 
which  is  earlier,  if  that  is  earlier  which  is  from  the 
very  beginning,  if  that  is  from  the  beginning  which 
has  the  apostles  for  its  authors,  then  it  will  certainly 
be  quite  as  evident,  that  that  comes  down  from  the 
apostles,  which  has  been  kept  as  a  sacred  deposit'  in 
the  churches  of  the  apostles.  Let  us  see  what  milk 
the  Corinthians  drank  from  Paul;  to  what  rule  [of 
faith]  the  Galatians  were  brought  for  correction; 
what  the  Philippians,  the  Thessalonians,  the  Ephe- 
sians  read  [out  of  it];  what  utterance  also  the 
Romans  give,  so  very  near''  [to  the  apostles],  to  whom 
Peter  and  Paul  conjointly^  bequeathed  the  gospel 
even  sealed  with  their  own  blood.  We  have  also  [St.] 
John's  foster  churches.''  For  although  Marcion  re- 
jects his  Apocalypse,  the  order  of  the  bishops 
[thereof],  when  traced  up  to  their  origin,  will  yet 
rest  on  John  as  their  author.  In  the  same  manner  is 
recognized  the  excellent  source^  of  the  churches.  I 
say,  therefore,  that  in  them  (and  not  simply  such  of 
them  as  were  founded  by  apostles,  but  in  all  those 
which  are  united  with  them  in  the  fellowship  of  the 
mystery  [of  the  gospel  of  Christ]*)  that  Gospel  of 

'  Sacrosanctum.  ["Inviolate;"  see  Westcott,  On  the 
Canon,  p.  384,  and  compare  T.'s  treatise,  De  Prescript. 
Sceret.  c.  36.] 

-  Dc  proximo.  [Mr.  Westcott  renders  this,  "  who  are 
nearest  to  us."     See  m  loco.] 

3  et et. 

"•  Alumnas  ecclcsias.  [He  seems  to  allude  to  the  seven 
churches  of  the  Apocalypse.  ] 

*  Generositas.  "  De  societate  sacramenti. 


TESTIMONY  OF  TERTULLIAN.  19 

Luke  which  we  are  defending  with  all  our  might  has 
stood  its  ground  from  its  very  first  publication ; 
whereas  Marcion's  Gospel  is  not  known  to  most  peo- 
ple, and  to  none  whatever  is  it  known  without  being 
at  the  same  time'  condemned. " 

"The  same  authority  of  the  apostolic  churches 
will  afford  evidence^  to  the  other  Gospels  also,  which 
we  possess  equally  through  their  means, ^  and  accord- 
ing to  their  usage  —  I  mean  the  Gospels  of  John  and 
Matthew  —  whilst  that  which  Mark  published  may  be 
affirmed  to  be  Peter's,*  whose  interpreter  Mark  was. 
For  even  Luke's  form^  of  the  Gospel  men  usually 
ascribe  to  Paul.^  And  it  may  well  seem'  that  the 
works  which  disciples  publish  belong  to  their  masters, 
"Well,  then  Marcion  ought  to  be  called  to  a  strict  ac- 
count^ concerning  these  [other  Gospels]  also,  for  hav- 
ing omitted  them,  and  insisted  in  preference'  on 
Luke;  as  if  they,  too,  had  not  had  free  course  in  the 
churches,  as  well  as  Luke's  Gospel,  from  the  beginn- 
ing. Nay,  it  is  even  more  credible  that  they'"  existed 
from  the  very  beginning;  for,  being  the  work  of 
apostles,  they  were  prior,  and  coeval  in  origin  with" 
the  churches  themselves.""' 


'  Eadem.  -  Patrocinabitur.  '•*  Proinde  per  illas. 

^  [See  Hiei'onymus,  Catal.  Scriptt.  Ecdes.  c.  8.] 

*  Digestum.  ^  [See  chap.  2.] 

'  Capit  videri.  ^  Flagitandus.  ^  Potius  institerit. 

'"  [Tlie  Gospels  of  the  apostles  John  and  Matthew,  and 
perhaps  Mark's  also,  as  being  St.  Peters.] 

"  Dedicata  cum. 

^"^  B.  IV,  c.  5.  Ante-Nicene  Christian  Library,  pub.  at 
Edinburgh  by  T.  &  T.  Clark,  1878;  vol.  VII. 


20    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPEL'S. 

TertuUian  evidently  regarded  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles  —  the  "New  Testament  Scriptures,"  as  he 
calls  them'  —  as  on  an  equal  footing  of  authority 
with  the  Old,  quoting,  as  he  did,  from  either  in- 
differently, according  as  his  argument  seemed  to  re- 
quire. In  his  work  against  Marcion  —  the  trans- 
lation of  which  makes,  in  the  Ante-Nicene  Library, 
an  octavo  volume  of  480  pages  —  he  refers,  accord- 
ing to  the  Index  of  Scriptures  affixed,  to  Matthew 
40  times,  Mark  once,  Luke  217,  and  John  13  times. 
He  quotes  many  times  the  Acts  and  all  the  Epistles, 
except  2d  Peter  and  2d  and  3d  John,  and  Jude.  He 
quotes  frequently,  from  nearly,  or  quite,  every  book 
of  the  Old  Testament. 

We  here  dismiss  this  witness  for  the  present. 
His  testimony  proves  that  the  four  Gospels  existed 
at  the  time  he  wrote,  about  the  year  210,  and  that 
he  believed,  on  the  authority  of  tradition  and  of  the 
Apostolic  churches,  that  they  were  written  respect- 
ively by  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and  John,  and  had 
been  handed  down  in  the  churches  from  the  days  of 
the  Apostles. 

The  next  witness  I  shall  call  is  Titus  Flavius 
Clemens.  He  was  converted  from  paganism  to 
Christianity  at  the  age  of  manhood.     His  writings 

'  De  resure.  earn.,  c.  39.     Adv.  Marc,  IV,  c.  23. 


TESTIMONY  OF  CLEMENT.  21 

show  that  he  was  well  acquainted  with  Greek  learn- 
ing, and  all  the  existing  systems  of  philosophy.  He 
traveled  extensively  in  pursuit  of  knowledge.  He 
tells  us  in  his  first  book  of  Miscellanies  or  Stro- 
mata  that  he  had  been  privileged  to  hear  the 
"  vigorous  and  animated  discourses  of  blessed  and 
truly  remarkable  men.  Of  these,  one,  in  Greece, 
an  Ionic;  the  other,  in  Magna  Grsecia,  (Lower 
Italy.)  The  one  was  born  in  the  land  of  Assyrias ; 
the  other,  a  Hebrew,  in  Palestina."^  He  succeeded 
Pantsenus  as  president  of  the  catechetical  school  in 
Alexandria  about  the  year  189.  Many  of  his  writ- 
ings have  perished.  His  Exhortation  to  the 
Heathen.,  his  Instructor.,  his  Miscellanies  or 
Stromata,  have  been  preserved,  and  are  published 
in  the  Ante-Kicene  Christian  Library.  His  work, 
called  Hypotyposes  was  translated  from  the  Greek 
into  the  Latin  by  Cassiodorus.  It  is  lost.^  It 
was  written  about  the  year  200.  Some  extracts 
from  it  have  been  preserved  to  us  by  Eusebius, 
whose  words  I  quote  : 

"CHAPTER  XV. 

"THE  GOSPEL   ACCORDING  TO  MARK. 

''The  divine   word  having  thus  been  established 
among  the  Romans,  the  power  of  Simon  was  soon  ex- 


C.  1.  -  Encyclopaedia  Britanmca,  article  Clement. 


22    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

tinguished  and  destroyed  together  with  the  man. '  So 
greatly,  however,  did  the  splendour  of  piety  enlighten 
the  minds  of  Peter's  hearers,  that  it  was  not  sufficient 
to  hear  but  once,  nor  to  receive  the  unwritten  doc- 
trine of  the  gospel  of  God,  but  they  persevered  in 
every  variety  of  entreaties,  to  solicit  Mark  as  the 
companion  of  Peter,  and  whose  Gospel  we  have,  that 
lie  should  leave  them  a  monument  of  the  doctrine 
thus  orally  communicated,  in  writing.  Nor  did  they 
cease  their  solicitations  until  they  had  prevailed  with 
the  man,  and  thus  become  the  means  of  that  history 
which  is  called  the  Gospel  according  to  Mark.  They 
say  also,  that  the  apostle,  (Peter,)  having  ascertained 
what  was  done  by  the  revelation  of  the  spirit,  was  de- 
lighted with  the  zealous  ardour  expressed  by  these 
men,  and  that  the  history  obtained  his  authority  for 
the  purpose  of  being  read  in  the  churches.  This  ac- 
count is  given  by  Clement,  in  the  sixth  book  of  his 
Institutions,  whose  testimony  is  corroborated  also  by 
that  of  Papias,  bishop  of  Hierapolis.  But  Peter 
makes  mention  of  Mark  in  the  first  epistle,  which  he 
is  also  said  to  have  composed  at  the  same  city  of 
Rome,  and  that  he  shows  this  fact,  by  calling  the 
city    by    an    unusual   trope,    Babylon;  thus,    'The 


'  From  these  words  of  Eusebius  it  is  concluded  that  the 
death  of  Simon  IMagus  happened  at  Rome  in  the  time  of 
Claudius,  for  Eusebius  writeth  that  Peter  came  to  Rome  in 
Claudius'  reign,  and  that  presently  after,  Simon's  magical 
arts  were  by  his  coming  destroyed  together  with  the  author. 
Though  there  be  others  that  say  Simon  was  destroyed  in 
Nero's  time.     Vales. 


X 


TESTIMONY  OF  CLEMENT.  23 

church  at  Babylon,  elected  together  with  you,  salu- 
teth  you,  as  also  my  son  Marcus. '     1  Pet.  v.  13. 

"Again,  in  the  same  work,  Clement  also  gives  the 
tradition  respecting  the  order  of  the  Gospels,  as  de- 
rived from  the  oldest  presbyters,  as  follows  :  *  He 
says  that  those  which  contain  the  genealogies  were 
written  first;  but  that  the  Gospel  of  Mark  was  oc- 
casioned in  the  following  manner  :  *  "When  Peter  had 
proclaimed  the  word  publicly  at  Eome,  and  declared 
the  Gospel  under  the  influence  of  the  spirit ;  as  there 
was  a  great  number  jjresent,  they  requested  Mark, 
who  had  followed  him  from  afar,  and  remembered 
well  what  he  had  said,  to  reduce  these  things  to 
writing,  and  that  after  composing  that  Gospel  he  gave 
it  to  those  who  requested  it  of  him.  Which  when 
Peter  understood,  he  directly  neither  hindered  nor 
encouraged  it.  But  John,  last  of  all,  perceiving 
that  what  had  reference  to  the  body  in  the  gospel  of 
our  Saviour,  was  sufficiently  detailed,  and  being  en- 
couraged by  his  familiar  friends,  and  urged  by  the 
Spirit,  he  wrote  a  spiritual  GosiJel.'  Thus  far 
Clement.'" 

Clement  rarely  cites  any  of  the  Gospels  by  the 
name  of  the  writer,  but  he  often  quotes  texts  from 
them.  He  gives  a  tradition  of  their  early  origin 
and  expresses  his  doubts  of  the  authenticity  of  a 
story  told  in  an  apocryphal  writing,  on  the  ground 
that  it  was  not  related  in  any  of  the  "  four  Gospels 


'  B.  II,  c.  15 ;  and  B.  VI.,  c.  14. 


24    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

handed  down  to  us."^  According  to  tlie  index  to  his 
published  works  in  the  Ante-Niceue  Library,  lie 
quotes  Matthew  100,  Mark  21,  Luke  100  and  John 
60,  times.  He  quotes,  also,  an  apocryphal  book, 
called  the  Preaching  of  Peter,  three  times. 

We  here  dismiss  this  witness.  He  proves  that  at 
the  time  he  wrote,  say  about  the  year  200,  our  pres- 
ent four  Gospels  were  in  existence.  He  quoted  and 
used  them  in  his  writings  as  frequently,  and  in 
much  the  same  way,  as  writers  of  sermons  do  in  the 
present  day. 

As  bearing  upon  the  question  of  the  date  of  our 
Gospels,  it  should  here  be  observed,  that  two  trans- 
lations of  the  Gospels,  and  other  New  Testament 
Scriptures,  were  made  according  to  Tischendorf  and 
other  critics  as  early  as  the  middle  of  the  second 
century  —  the  one,  from  the  Greek  into  the  Syriac 
language,  the  other,  from  the  Greek  into  the  Latin.* 
In  the  first  and  second  centuries,  Greek  was  the 
language  most  commonly  in  nse,  at  least  for  all  lit- 
erary purposes,  in  a  part  of  Palestine,  in  Asia 
Minor,  in  Greece,  in  Alexandria  and  in  a  part  of 

'  Stromata,  B.  Ill,  c.  13. 

'  Reuss'  Iligtory  of  the  Canon,  c.  8.  Westcott's  Canon  of 
theN.  T.,  pt.  -I,  c.  3,  §  1.  Tischendorf 's  Wfien  were  our 
Oospels  Written,  etc.,  and  published  by  the  American  Tract 
Society. 


SYRIAC  AND  LATIN  VERSIONS.  25 

Italj.^  The  Gospels,  except  Matthew,  were  origi- 
nally written  in  Greek,  Paul  wrote  his  Epistles  in 
Greek.  The  Roman  bishop  Clement  wrote  to  the 
church  in  Corinth  in  Greek,  and,  shortly  afterwards, 
the  bishop  of  Corinth  wrote  to  the  bishop  of  Rome 
in  Greek.  Clement,  Polycarp,  Barnabas,  Tatian, 
Justin,  Irenseus  and  others,  all  wrote  in  the  same 
language.  But,  when  the  Gospel  found  its  way 
into  portions  of  Syria  and  other  countries  in  the 
East,  where  the  Greek  language  was  not  so  well 
understood,  and  into  Northern  Africa  and  parts  of 
Italy  and  other  countries  in  the  West,  where  the 
Latin  language  prevailed,  there  came  a  demand 
from  the  Christians  of  those  countries  for  transla- 
tions of  the  New  Testament  into  their  vernacular 
tongues.  This  demand  was  met,  in  the  East,  by 
the  Peshito  or  "  simple "  Syriac,  version  of  the 
New  Testament,  and  in  the  "West,  by  the  old  Latin 
version  —  a  version  older  than  the  vulgate  now 
in  use.  The  Peshito  is  still  in  common  use  in 
many  Oriental  churches.  It  contains  the  four  Gos- 
pels, the  Acts  and  Epistles,  except  the  third  of 
John,  the  second  of  Peter,  and  the  Epistle  of  Judo. 
It  leaves  out  the  Apocalypse.^     The  old  Latin  ver- 


1  Westcott,  pt.  I,  c.  3.  §  2. 
4 


26     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

sion  coincided  with  the  Muratorian  fragment  and 
contained  the  four  Gospels,  the  Acts,  thirteen  Epis- 
tles of  Paul,  three  of  John,  the  first  of  Peter,  the 
epistle  of  Jude  and  the  Apocalypse.  A  few  manu- 
scripts of  this  old  version  are  still  in  existence. 
Lachmann  made  use  of  four,  of  which  one  belongs 
to  the  fourth  and  another  to  the  fourth  or  fifth  cen- 
turj.' 

The  next  witness  I  shall  examine  is  Irenaeus,  He 
was  born  and  grew  up  in  Asia  Minor,  —  probably  at 
Smyrna.  History  does  not  fix  the  exact  date  of  his 
birth.  "Writers  generally  state  it  to  have  been  be- 
tween the  years  120  and  140.'  He  was  surrounded 
in  his  youth  by  Christian  influences,  and  was,  most 
likely,  born  of  Christian  and  Greek  parents.  When 
he  was  a  boy,  Asia  Minor  was  full  of  churches,  as 
is  evident  from  the  accounts  given  of  them  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  the  Epistles.  "  The  seven 
churches  which  are  in  Asia,"  so  sharply  rebuked  in 
the  book  of  Eevelation,  were  all  located  within  a 
moderate  distance  of  the  place  where  he  spent  his 
boyhood  and  youth.  During  the  early  part  of  his 
life,  Polycarp  was  bishop  of  Smyrna ;  Papias,  wlio 


'  Westcott,  pt.  I,  c.  3,  §  2. 

■^  ScliafE's  Christian  Church,  §  124.     Encyclopaedia  Britan- 
uica,  article  Irenceus. 


TESTIMONY  OF  IRENyEUS.  27 

knew  Aristion  and  presbyter  John,  "  disciples  of  the 
Lord,"  was  bishop  of  Hieropolis;  and  Polycrates, 
of  Ephesus.  These  cities  were  all  in  the  same 
neighborhood  and  near  the  home  of  Irengeus.  It  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  he  knew  not  only  these 
persons,  but  many  others  whose  fathers  and  mothers 
had  listened  to  the  preaching  of  Paul  and  Barnabas, 
and  liad  received  the  Apostolic  benediction  from  the 
beloved  disciple  John. 

In  the  early  part  of  his  life,  Irenseus  removed 
(some  writers  say  accompanied  Pothinus,)  to  the 
southern  part  of  Gaul,  where  for  some  years  he  was 
presbyter  under  Pothinus,  bishop  of  what  is  now 
Lyons,  in  France.  From  Pothinus  he  would  natur- 
ally learn  many  things  connected  with  the  early 
history  of  the  church ;  for  Pothinus  was  born  about 
the  year  87  —  ten  years  before  the  death  of  the 
Apostle  John  —  and  most  likely  in  Asia  Minor 
where  he  may  have  known  that  Apostle.  He  lived 
to  the  advanced  age  of  ninety  years.^  While  yet  a 
presbyter,  Irenseus  was  sent  with  a  letter  from  cer- 
tain members  of  the  church  of  Lyons,  who  were 
then  awaiting  martyrdom,  to  Eleutherus,  bishop  of 
Rome.  After  the  death  of  Pothinus,  he  became 
bishop    of    Lyons. ^      He    wrote    his    great    book 

'  E.  H.  E.,  B.  V,  c.  5. 


28     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

Against  Heresies,  according  to  his  own  account, 
during  the  time  Eleutherus  was  bishop  of  Rome, 
i.  e.,  between  the  years  177  and  193.^  Writers,  gen- 
erally, give  the  year  180  as  the  date  of  this  work. 
The  author  of  Supernatural  lieligion  gives  190." 
He  wrote  also  a  letter  to  Victor,  bishop  of  Rome,  on 
the  subject  of  the  controversy,  pending  in  his  time, 
about  tlie  right  day  of  keeping  the  Easter  Festival. 
He  recommended  charity  and  forbearance.^  It  is 
generally  believed  that  he  suffered  martyrdom  in 
the  persecution  under  Septimus  Severus  in  the  year 
202.     But  this  is  not  certain. 

Irenseus  was  instructed  in  his  youth  by  Polj'carp, 
who  was,  next  to  the  Apostle  John,  the  most  dis- 
tinguished ecclesiastical  personage  of  the  age  in 
which  he  lived.  Polycarp  was  born  in  the  year  69 
or  70.  Irenseus  says :  "He  was  not  only  instructed 
b}'  Apostles  and  conversed  with  many  who  had  seen 
Christ,  but  was  also  by  Apostles  appointed  bishop 
of  the  church  in  Smyrna."*  Tertullian  says  he  was 
appointed  by  John."  In  his  letter  to  Florinus,  Iren- 
feus  says :     "  I  can  tell,  also,  the  very  place  where 

'  Irencms,  B.  Ill,  c.  3,  §  3. 

^  Supernatural  Religion^  pt.  II,  c.  10,  6th  ed.,  p.  522. 

»  E.  H.  E.,  B.  V,  c.  24. 

«  Irenmis,  B.  Ill,  c.  3,  §  4. 

*  Pre.  vs.  Heretics,  c.  32. 


TESTIMONY  OF  IREN^US.  29 

the  blessed  Polycarp  was  accustomed  to  sit  and  dis- 
course, and,  also,  his  entrances,  his  walks,  the  com- 
plexion of  his  life,  and  the  form  of  his  body  and 
his  conversations  with  the  people,  and  his  familiar 
intercourse  with  John,  as  he  was  accustomed  to  tell ; 
as,  also,  his  familiarity  with  those  that  had  seen  the 
Lord.  Also,  concerning  his  miracles,  his  doctrines, 
all  these  were  told  by  Polycarp  in  consistency  with 
the  Holy  Scriptures  as  he  had  received  them  from 
the  eye  witnesses  of  the  doctrine  of  salvation.  These 
things,  by  the  mercy  of  God,  and  the  opportunity 
then  afforded  me,  I  attentively  heard,  noting  them 
down,  not  on  paper,  but  in  my  heart ;  and  these 
same  facts  I  am  always  in  the  habit,  by  the  grace  of 
God,  to  recall  faithfully  to  mind."^  Mr.  Wadding- 
ton  has  hxed  the  date  of  the  martyrdom  of  Poly- 
carp during  the  proconsulship  of  L.  Statins  Quad- 
ratus,  in  the  year  155-6.^  This  date  is  accepted  by 
M.  Renan,  Hilgenfeld,  Lipsius,  Lightfoot  and 
others.^  At  the  time  of  his  martyrdom  he  declared, 
that  he  had  served  Christ  eighty-six  years.*  If  this 
expression  be  explained  as  taking  in  the  whole  period 


E.  n.  E.,  B.  V,  c.  20. 

Westcott's  Canon,  pt.  I,  c.  1,  §  3,  title  Polycarp,  in  note. 

Dr.  Lightfoot,  Contemporary  JRevietv,  Aug.,  1876. 

E.  n.  E.,  B.  IV,  c.  15. 


30     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

of  his  life,  he  must  have  been  born  in  69-70,  as  we 
have  above  said. 

After  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  by  the  Roman 
general  Titus,  in  the  year  TO,  the  Apostle  John  es- 
tablished his  home  at  Ephesus.  From  this  city,  as 
the  centre  of  his  Apostolic  labors,  he  governed  the 
churches  in  Asia  Minor.  He  lived  down  into  the 
reign  of  the  emperor  Trajan  between  98  and  117. 
His  death  is  generally  stated  to  have  occurred  about 
the  year  98,  at  the  advanced  age  of  ninety  and  up- 
wards.    He  died  a  natural  death  at  Ephesus.^ 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  different  dates,  that  the 
Apostle  John  and  Polycarp  were  contemporaries 
during  a  period  of  twenty-eight  or  nine  years.  They 
resided  during  this  time,  the  one  at  Ephesus,  the 
other  at  Smyrna.  These  cities  are  between  thirty 
and  forty  miles  distant  from  each  other.  It  will  be 
seen,  also,  from  these  dates  that  Polycarp  and  Iren- 
seus  were  contemporaries  during  a  period  of  be- 
tween sixteen  and  thirty-six  years,  according  to  the 
date  of  the  birth  of  Irenseus.  They  both  resided 
in  the  same  city  in  the  early  part  of  the  life  of  the 
latter.  Irenseus  was  contemporary  with  Pothinus 
forty   years   and    more,    Pothinus,    with   Polycarp 

'  E.  H.  E.,  B.  Ill,  c.  23.  Schaff's  Apostolical  Church,  B. 
I,  §  102;  Ireimns,  B.  Ill,  c.  3,  §  4. 


TESTIMONY  OF  IRENjEUS.  31 

fifty  years  and  more,  and  Polycarp,  with  the  Apos- 
tle John  twenty-eight  or  twenty-nine  years.  \See 
Apijendix  A.'\ 

Having  heard  the  evidence  relating  to  the  gene- 
ral intelligence  of  the  witness,  and  seen  what  op- 
portunities he  had  of  informing  himself  concerning 
the  subject  of  our  inquiry,  let  us  now  see  what  his 
testimony  is.  In  the  third  book  of  his  work 
Against  Heretics^  he  says  : 

''1.  We  have  learned  from  none  others  the  plan  of 
our  salvation,  than  from  those  through  whom  the 
gospel  has  come  down  to  us,  which  they  did  at  one 
time  proclaim  in  public,  and  at  a  later  period,  by  the 
will  of  God,  handed  down  to  us  in  the  Scriptures,  to 
be  the  ground  and  pillar  of  our  faith. ^  For  it  is  un- 
lawful to  assert  that  they  preached  before  they  pos- 
sessed 'perfect  knowledge,'  as  some  do  even  venture 
to  say,  boasting  themselves  as  improvers  of  the  apos- 
tles. For  after  our  Lord  rose  from  the  dead  [the 
apostles]  were  invested  with  power  from  on  high 
when  the  Holy  Spirit  came  down  [upon  them],  were 
filled  from  all  [His  gifts],  aiid  had  perfect  knowledge; 
they  departed  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  preaching  the 
glad  tidings  of  the  good  things  [sent]  from  God  to 
us,  and  proclaiming  the  peace  of  heaven  to  men,  who 
indeed  do  all  equally  and  individually  possess  the 
gospel  of  God.    Matthew  also  issued  a  written  gospel 

'  See  1  Tim.  iii,  15,  where  these  terms  are  used  in  refer- 
ence to  the  church. 


32     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

among  the  Hebrews'  in  their  own  dialect,  while  Peter 
and  Paul  Avere  preaching  at  Kome,  and  laying  the 
foundations  of  the  church.  After  their  departure 
[death]  Mark,  the  disciple  and  interpreter  of  Peter^ 
did  also  hand  down  to  us  in  writing  what  had  been 
preached  by  Peter.  Luke  also,  the  companion  of 
Paul,  recorded  in  a  book  the  gospel  preached  by  him. 
Afterward,  John,  the  disciple  of  the  Lord,  who  also 
had  leaned  upon  his  breast,  did  himself  publish  a 
gospel  during  his  residence  at  Ephesus  in  Asia. 

"2.  These  have  all  declared  to  us  that  there  is  one 
God,  Creator  of  heayen  and  earth,  announced  by  the 
law  and  the  prophets;  and  one  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God.  If  any  one  do  not  agree  to  these  truths,  he  de- 
spises the  companions  of  the  Lord;  nay,  more,  he  de- 
spises Christ  Himself,  the  Lord;  yea,  he  despises  the 
Father  also,  and  stands  self -condemned,  resisting  and 
opposing  his  own  salvation,  as  is  the  case  with  all 
heretics." 

"  8.  It  is  not  possible  that  the  Gospels  can  be  either 
more  or  fewer  in  number  than  they.  are.  For,  since 
there  are  four  zones  of  the  world  in  which  we  live, 
and  four  principal  winds, ^  while  the  church  is  scat- 
tered throughout  all  the  world,  and  the  '  pillar  and 
gi'ound'^  of  the  church  is  the  gospel  and  the  spirit 

'  On  this  and  similar  statements  in  the  fathers,  the  reader 
may  consult  Dr.  Roberts'  Discussions  on  the  Gospels,  in  which 
they  are  fully  criticised,  and  the  Greek  original  of  St.  Mat- 
thew's Gospel  maintained. 

^Literally,  "  four  catholic  spirits ;  Greek,  Te66apa  naOo- 
XiKCc  Ttvsv/uara;  Latin,  "  quatuor  principales  spiritus." 
-3  1  Tim.  iii,  15. 


TESTIMONY  OF  IREN^US.  33 

of  life;  it  is  fitting  that  she  should  have  four  pillars, 
breathing  out  immortality  on  every  side,  and  vivify- 
ing inen  afresh.  From  which  fact  it  is  evident  that 
the  Word,  the  Artificer  of  all,  He  that  sitteth  upon 
the  cherubim,  and  contains  all  things.  He  who  was 
manifested  to  men,  has  given  us  the  gospel  under 
four  aspects,  but  bound  together  by  one  Spirit. 
As  also  David  says,  when  entreating  His  mani- 
festation, *  Thou  that  sittest  between  the  cheru- 
bim, shine  forth.' '  For  the  cherubim,  too,  were 
four-faced,  and  their  faces  Avcro  images  of  the  dis- 
pensation of  the  son  of  God.  For  [as  the  Scripture] 
says,  '  The  first  living  creature  was  like  a  lion,'  "•'  sym- 
bolizing His  efi'ectual  working,  His  leadership  and 
royal  power;  the  second  [living  creature]  was  like  a 
calf,  signifying  [His]  sacrificial  and  sacerdotal  order; 
but  'the  tliird  had,  as  it  were,  the  face  as  of  a  man,' 
an  evident  description  of  his  advent  as  a  human  be- 
ing; '  the  fourth  was  like  a  flying  eagle,'  pointing  out 
the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  hovering  with  his  wings  over 
the  church.  And,  therefore,  the  Gospels  are  in  ac- 
cord with  these  things,  among  which  Christ  Jesus  is 
seated;  for  that,  according  to  John,  relates  His  origi- 
nal, effectual  and  glorious  generation  from  the 
Father,  thus  declaring,  '  In  the  beginning  was  the 
Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word 
was  God.' ^  Also,  'all  things  were  made  by  Him, 
and  without  Him  was  nothing  made.'  For  this  rea- 
son, too,  is  that  Gospel  full  of  all  confidence,  for  such 


'  Ps.  Ixxx,  1.  2  Rev.  iv,  7.  ^  John  i,  1. 

5 


34    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

is  His  person.'  But  that,  according  to  Luke,  taking 
up  [His]  priestly  character,  commenced  with  Zacha- 
rius,  the  priest,  offering  sacrifice  to  God.  For  now 
was  made  ready  the  fatted  calf,  about  to  be  immolated 
for  the  finding  again  of  the  younger  son.  Matthew, 
again,  relates  His  generation  as  a  man,  saying,  '  The 
book  of  the  generation  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  son  of 
David,  the  son  of  Abraham;'^  and  also,  'The  birth 
of  Jesus  Christ  was  on  this  wise.'  This,  then,  is  the 
Gospel  of  his  humanity;^  for  which  reason  it  is,  too, 
that  [the  character  of]  a  humble  and  meek  man  is 
kept  up  through  the  whole  Gospel.  Mark,  on  the 
other  hand,  commences  with  [a  reference  to]  the 
prophetical  spirit  coming  down  from  on  high  to  men, 
saying,  '  The  beginning  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ, 
as  it  is  written  in  Esaias,  the  prophet '  —  pointing  to 
the  winged  aspect  of  the  Gospel;  and  on  this  account 
he  made  a  compendious  and  cursory  narrative,  for 
such  is  the  prophetical  character. "  *  """^ ' 

""N*--^  '  The  above  is  the  literal  rendering  of  this  very  obscure 
sentence ;  it  is  not  at  all  represented  in  the  Greek  here  pre- 
served. 

■^  The  Greek  is  vTckfj;  the  Latin,  "pro." 

'  Matt,  i,  1,  18. 

*  The  Greek  text  of  this  clause,  literally  rendered,  is, 
"This  Gospel,  then,  is  authropomorphic." 

'C.  1,  §  1,  and  c.  11,  §  8. 

•The  idea  of  Irenteus,  that  it  is  fitting  that  "the 
church,  scattered  throughout  all  the  world,"  should  have 
"four  pillars"  in  the  form  of  the  "four  Gospels,"  inas- 
much as  there  are  "four  zones  in  the  world"  and  "four 
principal  winds,"  may  be  purely  a  fanciful  idea,  or  it  may 
have  contained  some  spiritual  or  mythical  meaning  which 


TESTIMONY  OF  IREN^US.  35 

If  our  Gospels  were  written  and  first  circulated 
"  in  the  last  half  of  the  second  century,"  according 
to  some  critics,  then  they  were  written  and  first  cir- 
culated when  Irengeus  was  in  the  full  vigor  of  his 
intellect,  in  the  active  service  of  the  church,  and 
about  the  time  he  was  writing  the  above  extracts. 
He  must  have  known  something  about  their  origin. 
He  must,  at  least,  have  known  that  they  did  not 
originate  in  Apostolic  times.  He  must  have  remem- 
bered a  time  when  he  knew  nothing  of  them,  wlien 
he  first  saw  or  heard  of  them,  and  when  they 
first  began  to  be  read  in  the  churches.  He  must 
have  known,  that  he  had  never  heard  Polycarp, 
Pothinus,  Papias,  or  any  other  aged  person  speak  of 
them  as  existing  in  their  younger  days.  And  if  all 
this  were  so,  then  what  he  says  in  the  above  ex- 


he  has  not  explained.  He  interprets  the  "four  living  crea- 
tures," described  in  the  first  and  tenth  chapters  of  the 
prophet  Ezekiel,  and  the  fourth  chapter  of  Revelation,  as 
symbols  of  our  four  Gospels.  The  ancient  fathers  Victo- 
rinus,  Athanisus,  Ambrose,  Augustine,  Jerome,  Gregory 
the  Great,  and  others,  down  to  modern  times,  interpret 
them  in  the  same  way.  According  to  this  interpretation, 
St.  Matthew  is  represented  as  the  Man,  St.  Mark  as  tlie 
Lion,  St.  Luke  as  the  Oalf  or  Ox,  and  St.  John  as  the 
Eagle.  (Williams'  Study  of  the  Gospels,  c.  2.)  Artists 
usually  paint  a  winged  Lion  in  a  picture  of  Mark,  an  Ox  in 
that  of  Luke,  and  an  Eagle  in  that  of  John. 


36     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

tracts,  in  regard  to  their  Apostolic  origin,  are  delib- 
erate falsehoods — not  mere  mistakes  or  errors  of 
judgment,  for  there  is  no  room  for  these,  but  false- 
hoods—  falsehoods,  too,  promulgated  not  only  be- 
fore the  whole  body  of  Chi'istiaus,  Jews  and  pagans 
of  that  day,  but  also  in  the  presence  of  the  Gnostics 
and  other  heretics  against  whom  he  was  writing, 
many  of  whom  were  learned  men.  These  would 
not  have  been  slow  to  expose  his  slightest  errors  and 
misrepresentations,  and  charge  him  with  them.  But 
the  disciple  of  Polycarp  and  companion  of  Pothiuus 
and  other  aged  men,  from  whom  he  had  an  oppor- 
tunity (as  we  have  seen),  of  receiving,  and  probably 
did  receive,  trustworthy  accounts  of  the  origin  of 
our  Gospels,  utterly  ignores  the  idea  of  their  recent 
origin.  He  does  not  testify  merely  to  the  existence 
of  a  tradition  affirming  their  early  origin,  but  he 
testifies  to  the  fact,  as  if  he  had  investigated  the 
question  and  had  learned  the  very  truth  of  the  mat- 
ter from  persons  who  knew  whereof  they  spoke. 
He  does  not  hesitate  to  affirm  in  the  face  of  Chris- 
tians, Jews,  pagans,  and  heretics,  that  they  were 
written  in  the  days  of  the  xVpostles,  by  Matthew 
and  John  —  Apostles,  and  Mark  and  Luke — com- 
panions of  Apostles.  He  expressly  excludes  the 
idea   of    their  having  originated   in   more   recent 


TESTIMONY  OF  IREN^US.  37 

times,  with  persons  falsely  assuming  the  names  of 
their  reputed  authors,  by  describing  the  writers  as 
"Matthew  the  Apostle,'"  "Mark,  the  interpreter 
and  follower  of  Peter,''  Luke, "  the  follower  and  disci- 
ple of  the  Apostles,"  and  as  "  inseparable  from  Paul 
and  his  fellow  laborer  in  the  Gospel,'"  and  "  John, 
the  disciple  of  the  Lord.'"  He  speaks  of  the  Gos- 
pels as  being  "  the  pillar  and  ground  of  our  faith,'" 
as  being  "  handed  down  to  us  from  the  Apostles,'" 
as  being  received  as  genuine  and  authoritative,  not 
only  by  the  orthodox  Christians,  but  also  by  the 
heretics  against  whom  he  was  writing.     He  says : 

"  So  firm  is  the  ground  upon  which  these  Gospels 
rest,  that  the  very  heretics  themselves  bear  witness  to 
them,  and,  starting  from  these  [documents],  each 
one  of  them  endeavors  to  establish  his  own  peculiar 
doctrine.  For  the  Ebionites,  who  use  Matthew's 
Gosper  only,  are  confuted  out  of  this  very  same, 
making  false  suppositions  with  regard  to  the  Lord. 
But  Marcion,  mutilating  that  according  to  Luke,  is 
proved  to  be  a  blasphemer  of  the  only  existing  God, 
from  those  [passages]  which  he  still  retains.     Those, 


'  B.  Ill,  c.  9,  §  1.  2  B.  Ill,  c.  10,  §  6. 

2  C.  10,  §  1,  and  c.  14,  §  1.         "  C.  11,  §  1. 

"•  B.  Ill,  c.  1,  §  1.  «  B.  Ill,  c.  1,  §  1. 

'  Harvey  thinks  tliat  this  is  the  Hebrew  Gospel  of  which 
Irenasus  speaks  in  the  opening  of  this  book;  but  comp.  Dr. 
Robert's  Discussions  on  the  Oosiiels,  part  11,  chap.  iv. 

4 


38    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

again,  who  separate  Jesus  from  Christ,  alleging  that 
Christ  remained  impassible,  but  that  it  was  Jesus 
who  suffered,  preferring  the  Gospel  by  Mark,  if  they 
read  it  with  a  love  of  truth,  may  have  their  errors 
rectified.  Those,  moreover,  who  follow  Valentinus, 
making  copious  use  of  that  according  to  John,  to 
illustrate  their  conjunctions,  shall  be  proved  to  be 
totally  in  error  by  means  of  this  very  Gospel,  as  I 
have  shown  in  the  first  book.  Since,  then,  our 
opponents  do  bear  testimony  to  us,  and  make  use  of 
these  [documents],  our  proof  derived  from  them  is 
firm  and  true.'" 

Irenseus  repeatedly  affirms  in  many  parts  of  his 
work  that  the  heretics  appealed  to  our  Gospels  to 
prove  their  erroneous  doctrines  as  well  as  to  Apo- 
cryphal Gospels.  He  quotes  Luke  2:49,  and  18:18  ; 
Mark  10:17;  Matthew  11:25-27,  and  21:23;  and 
many  other  texts  from  our  Gospels,  which  he  says, 
the  heretics  quote  and  misinterpret."  We  cannot 
verify  this  assertion  of  Irenaeus,  for  the  works  of  the 
heretics  referred  to  are  all  lost. 

Irenfieus'  work  Against  Heresies^  in  five  books, 
translated  by  the  Rev.  Alexander  Roberts  and  the 
Rev.  W.  H.  Rambaut,  and  published  by  T.  &  T. 
Clark  of  Edinburgh  in  the  Ante-Nicene  Christian 
Library,  makes  a  volume  and  a  half,  containing,  in 


'  B.  Ill,  c.  11,  §  7.  »  B.  I,  c.  31,  §§  1,  2,  3. 


CANON  OF  MURATORI.  39 

all,  six  hundred  and  thirty-seven  octavo  pages.  In 
this  work  and  a  few  fragments  of  other  works  pre- 
served by  Eusebius,  he  quotes  or  refers  to  Matthew's 
Gospel  190  times,  to  Mark's  15,  Luke's  120,  John's 
130.  He  quotes  from  every  book  of  the  new  Testa- 
ment, except  2^^  Peter,  and  2''  and  2>^  John.  It  is  not 
denied  that  his  quotations  from  the  Gospels  were 
taken  from  the  same  Gospels  which  are  in  common  use 
in  our  day.  The  passages  quoted  by  him  correspond 
with  parallel  texts  in  our  Gospels.  Indeed  Irenseus 
recognized  no  other  Gospels  than  our  four  as  genuine 
and  authentic.  These  he  recognized  as  Holy  Scrip- 
tures and  as  standing  on  a  common  footing,  in  every 
respect,  with  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  and  the 
Epistles.  These  same  four  Gosftels,  quoted  and  de- 
scribed by  Irenseus,  were  recognized  as  genuine  by 
Clement,  Tertullian,  Origen,  Jerome,  Augustine, 
Bernard,  Wickliffe,  Luther,  Calvin  and  many  others, 
making  an  unbroken  series  of  commentators  and 
writers  from  the  days  of  Irenaeus  to  the  present 
time. 

The  next  piece  of  evidence  I  shall  consider  is 
called  the  Canon  of  Muratori,  a  fragment  in  Latin, 
first  published  by  Muratori  in  his  Antiquiiates 
ItalicoB  in  1740.  It  was  found  in  the  Ambrosian 
Library,  at  Milan,  in  a  manuscript  of  the  T^  or  8*^  cen- 


40    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

tury,  which  originally  belonged  to  Columban's  great 
monastery  at  Bobbio.  The  manuscript  is  mutilated 
at  the  beginning  and  end.  Besides  a  canon  of  the 
New  Testament  Scriptures,  it  contains  a  miscel- 
laneous collection  of  Latin  fragments,  including  pas- 
sages from  Eucherius  and  Ambrose,  translations 
from  Clirysostom  and  brief  expositions  of  the 
Catholic  creed.  It  will  be  noticed  on  reading  the 
fragment  that  it  states  that  "  the  Pastor,  moreover, 
did  Hermas  write  very  recently  in  our  times  in  the 
city  of  Rome  while  his  brother  bishop  Pius  sat  in 
the  chair  of  the  church  of  Rome."  The  Roman 
calendar  fixes  the  episcopate  of  Pius  between  the 
years  142  and  157.  The  expression  "  very  recently 
in  our  times,"  as  indicating  the  date  of  the  canon, 
must  mean  during  the  episcopate  of  Pius  or  soon 
after.  Muratori  thinks  it  was  composed  about  190. 
The  author  of  Supernatural  Religion  says,  "the 
mass  of  critics  have  concluded  the  fragment  to  have 
been  written  toward  the  end  of  the  second  century." ' 
Canon  Westcott,  who  examined  the  manuscript  with 
great  care,  and  published  it  in  full  in  the  appendix 
to  his  canon  of  the  New  Testament,  thinks  it  could 


'  Supernatural  Religion,  pt.  2,  c.  10,  §  3,  p.  540. 


CANON  OF  MURA  TORI.  ■    41 

not  have  been  originally  written  later  than  the  year 
170.  Dr.  Tregelles  thinks  it  was  composed  as  early 
as  160.^  Both  of  these  writers  think  it  was  written 
originally  in  Greek.  The  author  is  unknown.  The 
first  pages  of  the  manuscript,  as  we  have  already 
said,  are  lost.  It  commences,  as  published  by  Canon 
Westcott,  thus  :  "  (p.  10  d)  quibus  tamen  interfuit  et 
ita  posuit.  Tertio  evangelii  libum  secando  Lucan,'' 
etc.,  etc.  I  make  use  of  the  translation  of  the 
canon  contained  in  the  Ante-Nicene  Library. 

"1 those  things  at  which  he  was  present  he 

placed  thus.^  The  third  book  of  the  Gospel,  that  ac- 
cording to  Luke,  the  well-known  physician  Luke 
wrote  in  his  own  name »  in  order  after  the  ascension 
of  Christ,  and  when  Paul  had  associated  him  with 


'  Dr.  Samuel  Prideaux  Tregelles  in  18G7  published  at 
Oxford  a  fac  mnile  tracing  of  the  manuscript  taken  by  him, 
in  1857,  from  the  manuscript  in  the  Ambrosian  library,  and 
accompanied  it  by  an  introduction  and  critical  notes. 

^  The  text  is,  "quibus  tamen  interfuit  et  ita  posuit." 
Westcott  omits  the  "  et."  Bunsen  proposes  "i/we  non  inter- 
fuit." The  reference  probably  is  to  the  statement  of  Papias 
(Euseb.  Histor.  Eccles.  iii.  39)  as  to  Mark's  Gospel  being  a 
narrative  not  of  what  he  himself  witnessed,  but  of  what  he 
heard  from  Peter. 

^  The  text  gives  ''  numine  suo  ex  opinione  concriset,"  for 
which  we  read  "  nomine  suo  ex  ordine  conscripsit "  with 
Westcott. 

6 


42     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

himself  as  one  studious  of  right.^  Nor  did  lie  him- 
self see  the  Lord  in  the  flesh ;  and  he,  according  as 
he  was  able  to  accomplish  it,  began  ^  his  narrative 
with  the  nativity  of  John.  The  fourth  Gospel  is  that 
of  John,  one  of  the  disciples.  When  his  fellow-dis- 
ciples and  bishops  entreated  him,  he  said,  "Fast  ye 
now  Avith  me  for  the  space  of  three  days,  and  let  us 
recount  to  each  other  whatever  may  be  revealed  to 
each  of  us."  On  the  same  night  it  was  revealed  to 
Andrew,  one  of  the  Apostles,  that  John  should  narrate 
all  things  in  his  own  name  as  they  called  them  to 
mind  (or  as  they  revised  them,  recognoscentihus). 
And  hence,  although  different  j^oints  (principia)  are 
taught  us  in  the  several  books  of  the  Gospels,  there  is 
no  difference  as  regards  the  faith  of  believers,  inas- 
much as  in  all  of  them  all  things  are  related  under 
one  imperial  {prmcqjaU,  leading)  spirit,  which  con- 
cern the  [Lord's]  nativity.  His  passion,  His  resurrec- 
tion, His  conversation  with  His  disciples,  and  His 
twofold  advent,  —  the  first  in  the  humiliation  of 
rejection,  which  is  now  past,  and  the  second  in  the 
glory  of  royal  power,  which  is  yet  in  the  future. 
What  marvel  is  it,  then,  that  John  brings  forward 
these  several  things  {singula)  so  constantly  in  his 
epistles  also,  saying  in  his  own  person,  *'What  we 


'  Reading  "  secum  "  for  "  secundum." 

'  The  text  gives  "  quasi  ut  juris  studiosum,"  for  which 
"quasi  et  virtutis  studiosum,"  =  *'as  one  devoted  to 
virtue,"  has  been  proposed.  Bunsen  reads  "  itineris  socium  " 
=  ''  as  his  companion  in  the  way. 

2  "Incepit"  for  "incipet" 


CANON  OF  MURA  TORI.  43 

have  seen  with  our  eyes,  and  heard  with  our  ears,  and 
our  hands  have  handled,  that  have  we  written."  ' 
For  thus  he  professes  himself  to  be  not  only  the  eye- 
witness, but  also  the  hearer ;  and  besides  that,  the 
historian  of  all  the  wondrous  facts  concerning  the 
Lord  in  their  order. 

y.  Moreover,  the  acts  of  all  the  Apostles  are  com- 
prised by  Luke  in  one  book,  and  addressed  to  the 
most  excellent  Theophilus,  because  these  different 
events  took  place  when  he  was  present  himself  ;  and 
he  shows  this  clearly  [i.  e.  that  the  principle  on  which 
he  wrote  was  to  give  only  what  fell  under  his  own 
notice)  by  the  omission  ^  of  the  passion  of  Peter,  and 
also  of  the  journey  of  Paul,  when  he  went  from  the 
city  (Kome)  to  Spain. 

3.  As  to  the  epistles  ^  of  Paul,  again,  to  those  who 
will  understand  the  matter,  they  indicate  of  them- 
selves what  they  are,  and  from  what  place  or  with 
what  object  they  were  directed.  He  wrote  first  of  all, 
and  at  considerable  length,  to  the  Corinthians,  to 
check  the  schism  of  heresy  ;  and  then  to  the  Galatians, 
to  forbid  circumcision ;  and  then  to  the  Eomans  on 
the  rule  of  the  [Old  Testament]  Scriptures,  and  also 
to  show  them  that  Christ  is  the  first  object  {principmm) 
in  these ;  —  which    it  is   needful  for  us  to  discuss 


'  1  John  i.  1. 

"^  The  text  is,  "  semote  passionem  Petri,"  etc.,  for  which 
Westcott  reads  "semota." 

^Reading,  "ei^istolae"  and  "direct£e"  instead  "epis- 
tola"  directe,"  and  "voleutibus  "  for  '' volentatibus." 


44     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

severall}',^  as  the  blessed  Apostle  Paul,  following  the 
rule  of  his  predecessor  John,  writes  to  no  more  than 
seven  churclies  by  name,  in  this  order  ;  the  first  to  the 
Corinthians,  the  second  to  the  Ephesians,  the  third 
to  the  Philippians,  the  fourth  to  the  Colossians,  the 
fifth  to  the  Galatians,  the  sixth  to  the  Thessalonians, 
the  seventh  to  the  Eomans.  Moreover,  though  he 
writes  twice  to  the  Corinthians  and  Thessalonians  for 
their  correction,  it  is  yet  shown  {i.  e.  by  this  seven- 
fold writing)  that  there  is  one  church  spread  abroad 
through  the  whole  world.  And  John  too,  indeed,  in 
the  Apocalypse,  although  he  writes  only  to  seven 
churches,  yet  addresses  all.  He  wrote,  besides  these, 
one  to  Philemon,  and  one  to  Titus,  and  two  to 
Timothy,  in  simple  personal  affection  and  love  indeed  ; 
but  yet  these  are  hallowed  in  the  esteem  of  the 
catholic  church,  [and]  in  the  regulation  of  ecclesi- 
astical discipline.  There  are  also  in  circulation  one 
to  the  Laodiceans,  and  another  to  the  Alexandrians, 
forged  under  the  name  of  Paul,  [and]  addressed 
against  the  heresy  of  Marcion  ;  and  there  are  also 
several  others  which  cannot  be  received  into  the 
catholic  church,  for  it  is  not  suitable  for  gall  to  be 
mingled  with  honey. 

4.  The  Epistle  of  Jude,  indeed  (sane),  and  two  be- 
longing to  the  above-named  John  (or  bearing  the 
name   of  John),  are   reckoned   among   the  catholic 


1  The  text  is,  '•  de  qnibus  singulis  necesse  est  a  nobis  dis- 
putari  cum,"  etc.  Bunsen  reads,  "de  quibus  non  necesse 
est  a  nobis  disputari  cur "  =  "on  which  we  need  not  dis- 
cuss the  reason  why." 


CANON  OF  MURATORI.  45 

[epistles].'  Aud  the  [book  of  J  Wisdom,  written  by 
the  friends  of  Solomon  in  his  honour,  [is  admitted]. 
We  receive  also  the  Apocalypse  of  John  and  [that  of] 
Peter,  though  some  amongst  us  will  not  have  this 
latter  read  in  the  church.  The  Pastor,  moreover,  did 
Hermas  write  very  recently  in  our  times  in  the  city  of 
Rome,  while  his  brother  bishop  Pius  sat  in  the  chair 
of  the  church  of  Rome.  And  therefore  it  also  ought 
to  be  read;  but  it  cannot  be  made  public''  in  the 
church  to  the  people,  nor  [placed]  among  the  prophets, 
as  their  number  is  complete,  nor  among  the  Apostles 
to  the  end  of  time.  Of  [the  writings  of]  Arsinous, 
called  also  Valentinus,  or  of  Miltiades,  we  receive 
nothing  at  all.  Those  two  who  wrote  the  new  Booh 
of  Psalms  for  Marcion,  together  with  Basilides  and 
the  founder  of  ths  Asian  Oataphrygians  [are  re- 
jected].^ 

There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the  Gospels 
of  Matthew  and  Mark  had  been  named  by  the 
writer  in  the  preceding  pages  which  have  been  torn 
off.  This  document  is  interesting  on  many  accounts, 
but  particularly  as  showing  that  not  only  the  four 
Gospels  were,  at  the  time  of  its  date  (say  about  170), 
in  common  use,   but  also  that  the  entire  canon  of 


1  The  text  is  "in  catholica,"  which  may  be  "in  the 
catholic  church."  Bunsen,  Westcott,  etc.,  read  "  in 
catholicis." 

*  Reading  "  sed  publican"  for  ''se  publicare." 
=5  Vol,  IX,  pt.  3,  p.  159,  Clark's  Edinburgh  ed. 


4j6     authorship  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

our  New  Testament  Scriptures  was  so  far  advanced 
towards  final  completion  as  to  include  as  in  common 
use  nearly  all  the  books  now  found  in  it. 

Tlieophilns,  bishop  of  Autiocli,  writing  to  Autolj- 
cus  about  180,  says :  "  And  hence  the  holy  writings 
teach  us,  and  all  the  spirit-bearing  [inspired]  men, 
one  of  whom,  John,  says,  '  In  the  beginning  was 
the  word,  and  the  word  was  with  God  and  the  word 
was  God.'  Showing,  that,  at  first  God  was  alone 
and  tlie  word  in  Him.'"  He  quotes  from  Matthew, 
Luke,  Romans,  Timothy  and  other  writers  of  the 
New  Testament,  but  without  naming  any  of  them 
except  John." 

Tatian,  a  pupil  of  Justin  Martyr,  about  the  year 
155-170,  "  having  formed  a  certain  body  and  collec- 
tion of  Gospels,"  says  Eusebius,  "  has  given  this  the 
title  Diatessaron,  that  is,  the  Gospel  by  the  four,  or 
the  Gospel  formed  of  the  four ;  which  is  in  the  pos- 
session of  some  even  now,"  i.  e.,  about  the  year 
325,  when  Eusebius  wrote.^  It  is  stated  by  Diony- 
sius  Bar  Salibi,  a  writer  of  the  close  of  the  12th 
century,  that  Ephraem  Syrus,  the  celebrated  deacon 
of  Edessa,  wrote  a  commentary  on  the  Diatessaron 
of  Tatian.     This  work,  or  perhaps  a  series  of  ex- 


1  B.  II,  c.  22.  '  Antc-Nicene  Librarj^  vol.  Ill,  p.  88, 

»  B.  IV,  c.  29,  Westcott's  Canon,  §  10,  title   Tatian. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUSTIN  US.  47 

tracts  from  it,  is  still  preserved  in  an  Arnienian 
translation.  The  Armenian  text  was  published  as 
long  ago  as  1836,  but  more  recently  the  work  has 
been  made  generally  accessible  in  a  Latin  transla- 
tion published  at  Venice  in  1876.  The  first  pas- 
sage commented  upon  is  John  i,  1,  with  which,  it 
appears,  from  the  evidence  of  Bar  Salibi,  Tatian's 
Harmony  began.  Then  follow  passages  from  the 
four  Gospels.  Scholars,  who  are  acquainted  with 
this  commentary,  do  not  hesitate  to  express  the  con- 
viction that  it  is  founded  on  Tatian's  Diatessaron, 
and  this  on  our  four  Gospels.  What  other  four 
Gospels  ever  formed  a  collection  that  was  known,  or 
could  be  known,  by  the  simple  description  of  "  The 
Four?"' 

Flavins  Justinus,  philosopher.  Christian  and 
Martyr,  is  the  next  witness.  He  was  born  toward 
the  close  of  the  first  century,  or  in  the  beginning  of 
the  second,  in  the  Grseco-Roman  colony  of  Flavia 
Neapolis  —  the  ancient  Sicliem  in  Samaria  —  and 
was  educated  in  Hellenic  heathenism.  He  tells  us, 
in  his  Dialogue  with  Trypho^  that  he  studied  philos- 


1  Footman's  Eeassuring  Hints,    1885,  p.  152.     Supernatu- 
ral Religion,  ch.  VIII,  §  1. 
'  Dialogue,  c.  2  and  8. 


48     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

ophy  at  different  times  with  a  Stoic,  a  Peripatetic, 
a  Pythagorean  and  a  Platonist,  and  at  last  embraced 
Christianity  as  the  true  philosophy.  He  spent  some 
time  in  Ephesus  and  lived  for  a  considerable  period 
in  Rome.  He  continued  to  wear  the  jpallium  or 
philosopher's  cloak,  after  his  conversion  the  same 
as  before.'  He  suffered  martyrdom  at  Rome  about 
166-7,  under  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius.  His 
principal  works,  which  are  still  extant,  are  his 
Dialogue  with  the  Jew  Trypho  and  two  Apologies. 
The  first,  which  possesses  much  the  greater  value,  is 
addressed  to  the  Emperor  Antoninus  Pius,  whose 
reign  commenced  in  138  and  ended  in  161.  It  was 
written  about  the  year  150.  The  other  is  addressed 
to  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  was  written  sometime 
afterward.'' 

In  both  Apologies^  Justin  seeks  to  obtain  from 
the  Roman  Emperor  a  revocation  of  the  decrees 
which  authorized  the  punishment  of  Christians, 
though  guilty  of  no  crime,  but  simply  because  they 
were  Christians.  In  the  first,  he  gives  to  the 
heathen  Emperor  a  pretty  full  account  of  the  moral 


1  Introductory  notice  to  bis  works.  Clark's  Ante-Nicene 
Library,  vol.  II.     Schaff's  Christian  Church,  §  122. 

'^  Schaff's  Christian  Church,  p.  483.  Supernatural  Re- 
ligion, vol.  I,  p.  248. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUSTINUS.  49 

teachings  aud  religion  of  the  Christians  and  shows, 
that  these  possess  no  objectionable  character.  In 
his  Dialogue  with  Trypho,  he  seeks  to  convince  the 
Jews,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Messiah  foretold  by 
the  prophets.  His  writings  show  an  extensive  and 
familiar  acquaintance  with  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures,  particularly  the  prophets  and  psalms, 
and  with  histories  of  the  life  and  doctrines  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

The  question  now  is,  do  the  writhigs  of  this  wit- 
ness contain  any  proof  that  our  canonical  Gospels 
existed  at  the  time  he  wrote,  to  wit,  about  the  year 
150  %  They  afford  abundant  proof  that  he  was  well 
versed,  as  we  have  already  said,  in  a  knowledge  of 
the  Gospel  history.  From  what  source  did  he  de- 
rive this  knowledge  ?  The  only  source  of  informa- 
tion to  which  he  refers  is  certain  Memoirs.  These 
he  mentions  in  his  first  Apology  and  in  the  Dialogue 
eight  times  by  the  name  simply  of  Memoirs,  and 
five  times  by  the  name  of  Memoirs  of  the  Apostles. 
In  one  place  he  calls  them  the  "Memoirs  which 
were  composed  by  the  Apostles  and  are  called  Gos- 
pels.'" In  another  place,  he  uses  this  language : 
"  In  the  Memoirs  which,  I  say,  were  drawn  up  by 

fj  1  Ap.,  c.  66. 


50    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

His  Apostles  and  those  who  followed  them,  it  is 
recorded,"^  etc.  When  describing  the  weekly  wor- 
ship of  the  Christians,  he  says :  "  And  on  the  day 
called  Sunday,  all  who  live  in  cities  or  in  the  coun- 
try gather  together  to  one  place,  and  the  memoirs 
of  the  Apostles,  or  the  writings  of  the  prophets,  are 
read  as  long  as  time  permits.'"  It  is  not  claimed 
by  anybody  that  the  Apostles  and  their  companions 
were  the  subjects  of  these  memoirs,  but  the  writers 
of  them.  These  writings,  it  is  claimed,  were  the 
memoirs  of  Jesus  by  the  Apostles  and  their  com- 
panions. 

In  the  account  here  given  of  the  Memoirs,  two 
facts  are  particularly  to  be  noted  :  1st.  Whatever 
were  their  contents,  and  whether  they  consisted  of 
one  book-  or  more,  they  were  written  by  "  Apostles 
and  their  companions."  This  fact  Justin  testifies 
to ;  and  he  lived  so  near  the  days  of  the  Apostles, 
and  had  resided  in  so  many  different  places,  and  was 
acquainted  with  so  many  different  persons,  that  he 
had  it  in  his  posverto  ascertain  the  truth  of  the  fact 
he  states.  2d.  They  were  read  in  the  churches  as 
Sacred  Scriptures,  on  a  common  footing  with  the 
books   of   the   prophets.      This   statement    is    not 

1  Dia.,  c.  103.  '  A}).,  c.  67. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUSTIN  US.  51 

limited  to  one  or  two  particular  churclies,  but  is 
general,  and  applies  to  all  the  churclies  existing  in 
that  day.  Justin  is  a  well  qualified  witness  to 
testify  to  this  fact.  He  was  born  and  grew  up  in 
Palestine,  where  he  had  a  good  opportunity  of 
learning  the  customs  of  the  Christian  churches  in 
the  East ;  and  he  spent  the  latter  part  of  his  life  in 
Rome,  where  he  wrote  the  Apology^  which  states 
the  fact  in  question,  and  where  he  had  an  equally 
good  opportunity  to  learn  the  practices  of  the 
churches  in  the  West.  He  undoubtedly  knew  this 
fact  to  be  as  he  states  it.*  Now,  I  think  it  may  be 
truthfully  said  that  at  the  time  he  wrote  there  were 
at  least  2,000  churches  or  congregations,  scattered 
throughout  the  Roman  Empire.  Irengeus,  speak- 
ing of  the  unity  of  the  faith  held  by  the  churches, 
says :  "  For  the  churches  which  have  been  planted 
in  Germany  do  not  believe  or  hand  down  any  thing 
different,  nor  do  those  in  Spain,  nor  those  in  Gaul, 
nor  those  in  the  East,  nor  those  in  Egypt,  nor  those 
in  Libya,  nor  those  which  have  been  established  in 
the  central  regions  of  tlie  world.'"     Gibbon  esti- 


'  TertuUian  says  that  the  "authentic  writings"  of  the 
Apostles  are  read  in  the  Apostolic  churches.  Prescription 
aaainst  Heretics,  c.  36. 


against  Heretics,  c.  36 
»  Irenseus,  B.  I,  c.  10,  §  2 


52     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

mates  the  population  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  the 
time  of  the  Antonines,  in  138,  at  120,000,000,  and 
the  Christian  population  at  the  time  of  the  conver- 
sion of  Constantine,  about  the  year  320,  at  one- 
twentieth  of  the  whole  or  about  6,000,000.' 
Clement,  who  wrote  about  the  year  200,  says,  in  his 
miscellanies:''  "But  the  word  of  our  Teacher  re- 
mained not  in  Judea  alone,  as  philosophy  did  in 
Greece,  but  was  diffused  over  the  whole  world,  over 
every  nation,  and  village  and  town,  bringing  already 
over  to  the  truth  whole  houses  and  each  individual 
of  those  who  heard  it  by  himself,  and  not  a  few 
other  philosophers  themselves."  Tertullian  writing 
from  North  Africa,  in  the  year  200,  says  —  probably 
with  some  exaggeration  —  "  They  who  were  but  of 
yesterday  already  fill  the  palace,  the  senate,  the 
forum  and  the  camp  and  leave  to  the  heathen  their 
temples  only."^ 

In  all  probability  there  were  in  existence,  at  the 
time  Justin  wrote,  at  least  20,000  copies  of  these 
Memoirs.,  including  all  that  were  in  private  hands, 
in  the  catechetical  schools,  and  in  the  keeping  of 
the  different  churches.  Mr,  Norton,  holding  the 
Memoirs  and  our  Gospels  to  be  the  same  books. 


'  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  chs.  2,  15. 
«  B.  V,  c.  18.  ^  Apol,  B.  I,  c.  37. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUSTINUS.  53 

estimates  the  number  of  copies  in  existence  at  this 
time  at  60,000.  He  shows  tliat  books  were  much 
cheaper  in  that  day  than  they  were  in  the  middle 
ages.  The  poorest  Christian  could  afford  to  have  a 
copy  of  a  Gospel.'  Now,  the  question  is,  what 
were  these  Memoirs  and  what  became  of  them  ?  It 
is  generally  believed  they  were  our  Gospels  and  are 
in  use  among  us  at  the  present  day.  But  the  author 
of  Supernatural  Religion,  and  the  German  critics 
he  quotes  from,  say  they  were  not  our  Gospels,  but 
an  apocryphal  Gospel  bearing  several  different 
names,  which,  according  to  these  critics,  was  very 
much  used  by  Christians  in  the  early  age  of  the 
church,  but  is  now  lost.'' 


'  Genuineness  of  the  Gospels,  ch.  1.  H.  Geraud,  in  liis 
Essai  sur  les  livres,  etc.,  p.  180,  says: 

"  The  thirteenth  book  of  Martial  netted  the  bookseller 
about  two  sesterces ;  he  sold  it  for  about  four  (or  99  cen- 
times). The  first  book  of  Martial's  Epigrams  sold  for  five 
denarii  (4  fr.  95  c).  A  large,  common  book  (tomus  vilis) 
brought  from  six  to  ten  sesterces  (or  1  fr.  50  c.  to  2  fr. 
20  c).  These  prices  seem  small.  *  *  *  But  it  -was 
otherwise  when  the  trade  of  the  bookseller  was  in  its  in- 
fancy. Plato  paid  for  three  little  treatises  *  *  *  100 
attic  minse  (about  10,000  fr.),  and  Aristotle  gave  three  tal- 
ents (16,465  fr.)  for  a  few  books  which  had  belonged  to 
Spensippus.''  Juvenal  represents  Codrus,  who  was  very 
poor,  as  owning  books.     Sat.  Ill,  206. 

'  Ch.  3. 


54    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

Now,  let  us  stop  here  and  consider  this  theory 
for  a  moment.  These  Memoirs  were  read  in  the 
churches  as  sacred  books,  on  a  common  footing 
with  the  prophets.  No  doubt  Christians  every- 
where were  much  attached  to  them.  They  con- 
tained the  evidences  of  the  faith  in  defense  of 
which  so  many  of  them  went  to  martyrdom.  But 
notwithstanding  this  attachment,  all  the  copies, 
numerous  as  they  were,  suddenly  disappeared,  and 
our  four  Gospels  took  their  place.  This  substitu- 
tion was  brought  about,  according  to  the  theory, 
between  the  time  when  Justin  wrote,  in  the  year 
150,  and  the  time  when  Irenoeus  wrote,  in  180  — 
an  interval  of  thirty  years.  The  church  had  before 
this  time  passed  through  the  period  of  its  infancy, 
during  which  it  was  in  great  danger,  according  to 
all  human  appearances,  of  being  destroyed  by  pa- 
ganism on  one  side,  and  Judaism  on  the  other.  In 
the  age  immediately  succeeding  that  of  the  Apos- 
tles, it  had  within  its  pale  but  few  learned  men, 
and  fewer  writers.  Its  most  intelligent  members 
were  employed,  not  in  writing  books,  but  in  doing- 
missionary  work  in  heathen  countries,  and  in  caring 
for  the  flock  at  home.'     Notwithstanding,  however. 


'  E.  n.  E.,   B.  Ill,  c.  37. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUSTIN  US.  55 

the  lack  of  learned  men  and  writers,  and  notwith- 
standing the  opposition  the  Gospel  everywhere 
encountered,  the  church  continued  to  grow.  The 
conditions  which  surrounded  it  were  every  day  im- 
proving. Though  still  persecuted  by  the  govern- 
ment, yet  learned  men  —  Greek  and  Roman  phi- 
losophers—  were  beginning  to  investigate  its  claims 
to  their  attention.  Many  of  these,  according  to 
Clement,  were  abandoning  paganism  and  embracing 
Christianity.  Justin  himself  was  an  instance  of 
the  conversion  of  the  philosopher  into  the  Chris- 
tian. And  so,  also,  was  Clement.  Writers  were 
multiplied  in  the  church.  During  the  interval  of 
the  thirty  years  above  mentioned,  Irenseus  was  em- 
ployed in  collecting  and  arranging  materials  for  his 
books  Against  Heresies ;  Theophilus,  bishop  of 
Antioch,  was  writing  his  beautiful  letter  to  Autoly- 
cus;  Athenagoras,  the  Atlienian  philosopher,  his 
Plea  for  Christians,  addressed  to  Marcus  Aurelius 
and  Commodus,  emperors ;  Tatian  was  employed  in 
writing  his  Diatessaron ;  Rliodo,  his  attack  on 
Marcion,  and  Celsus,  his  attack  on  Christianity; 
while  Clement  was  waiting  to  become  head  master 
of  the  celebrated  school  at  Alexandria,  over  which 
the  learned  Pantjenus  was  still  presiding ;  and 
Tertullian  was  studying  the  Roman   civil    law  at 


56    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

Carthage  aud  sacrificing  to  the  Homan  gods.  In 
an  age  of  so  much  intelligence  and  literary  activity 
in  the  church  as  this,  and  amidst  these  surround- 
ings, it  is  asserted  that  our  Gospels  were  written  or 
compiled,  and  substituted  in  place  of  the  Mevioirs ; 
and  yet  not  one  of  these  writers,  or  any  other  in 
ancient  times,  mentions  either  the  fact  of  the  writ- 
ing or  the  substitution.  Twenty  thousand  copies, 
more  or  less,  of  these  Memoirs^  scattered  through 
different  neighborhoods  iu  Europe,  Asia  and  Af- 
rica, suddenly  vanished  like  "  the  baseless  fabric  of 
a  vision."  They  were  never  lieard  of  afterward. 
New  books  took  their  places,  and,  wonderful  to  tell, 
all  this  was  accomplished  without  producing  any 
commotion  among  the  people,  or  prompting  a  single 
remonstrance  against  the  change  from  a  single 
Christian,  so  far  as  we  know,  and  without  the 
transaction  being  anywhere  noticed  in  history. 
Credat  Judceus  Appella. 

Justin  undoubtedly  knew  the  names  of  the 
writers  of  the  Memoirs  ',  but  it  is  not  likely  that 
the  pagan  emperor  to  whom  he  addressed  his 
Apology  knew  them  ;  nor  is  it  probable  that  the  un- 
believing Jews,  for  whose  benefit  he  wrote  the 
Dialogue,  knew  them.    By  giving  the  names  of  un- 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUSTINUS.  57 

known  persons  as  the  authors,  he  could  have  added 
nothing  to  the  force  of  his  argument.  But  by  call- 
ing the  books  Memoirs  of  the  Apostles,  in  analogy 
to  Xenophobias  Memoirs  or  Memorabilia  of  Socrates, 
with  which  Justin,  and  those  for  whom  he  wrote, 
were  familiar,  he  at  once  described  the  character  of 
the  books,  as  memorials  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  he 
described  the  character  of  their  writers  as  persons 
qualified  by  their  associations  with  Him  to  write 
such  memorials.  This  is  all  the  emperor,  or  Justin's 
readers  generally,  would  care  to  know.  The  mere 
names  of  the  writers  could  convey  no  information. 
Besides  it  may  not  have  been  tlie  fashion  of  the  day 
to  name  the  author  of  a  book  from  which  the  writer 
quoted. 

Until  within  the  last  century,  I  believe,  no  scholar 
ever  doubted  that  Justin's  Memoirs  and  our  Gos- 
pels were  the  same.  But  within  that  time  many 
critics  have  sprung  up,  mostly  in  Germany,  who 
deny  their  identity  and  assert  that  they  cannot  be 
the  same,  1st,  because  so  large  a  number  of  quota- 
tions made  by  Justin  from  the  Memoirs  differ  in 
language  and  thought  from  parallel  passages  con- 
tained in  the  Gospels;  2nd,  Justin  narrates  facts 
concerning  Jesus,  and  repeats  sayings  of  His,  not 
found  in  our  Gospels;    3d,  there  existed  at    the 


58     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

time  lie  wrote,  other  Gospels,  since  lost,  which  Jus- 
tin probably  used,  and  which  he  has  denominated 
Memoirs  of  the  Apostles. 

I  will  consider,  briefly,  each  of  these  proposi- 
tions. First,  As  to  the  variations  between  the  quota- 
tions made  by  Justin  from  tlie  Memoirs  and  parallel 
passages  in  the  Gospels.  These  variations  occur 
frequently.  They  are  so  numerous  that  at  the  first 
blush  they  would  seem  to  prove  that  the  Memoirs 
and  Gospels  could  not  be  the  same  work.  But  they 
have  been  accounted  for  in  two  ways,  1st,  in  some 
instances,  by  the  differences  in  the  readings  of  the 
different  manuscripts,  but  2d,  more  often  by  the 
fact  that  Justin's  quotations  w^ere  generally  made 
from  memory  and  are  therefore  often  inexact. 
That  he  often  quoted  from  memory  is  proved  by 
the  fact  that  in  the  Apology  and  Dialogue  twenty- 
eight  instances  occur  in  which  he  quoted  passages 
differently  at  different  times.  Such  differences 
would  have  been  impossible  if  he  had  opened,  or 
unrolled,  the  book,  and  quoted  directly  from  it  in 
each  case.  Besides,  his  quotations  from  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures  vary  from  the  text  quite  as 
frequently  as  his  quotations  from  the  Memoirs  vary 
from  our  Gospels.  This  could  not  have  been  if  he 
had  quoted  from  the  book.     Canon  Westcott  refers 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUSTINUS.  59 

to  thirty  instances  of  inexact  quotations  from  the 
Old  Testament,  found  in  the  Apology  and  Dialogue; 
seven  instances  of  adaptations  of  the  text  to  his 
purposes;  and  twenty-'two  of  combining  several 
texts  together,  as  it  were,  into  one.'  These  varia- 
tions between  the  Memoirs  and  our  Gospels,  then^ 
do  not  prove  that  they  were  two  different  works ; 
but  only  the  existence,  in  some  instances,  of  varia- 
tions in  the  readings  between  the  manuscript  copies 
of  the  Gospels  used  by  Justin,  and  the  copies  from 
which  our  Gospels  were  taken ;  and  in  other  in- 
stances, and  more  often,  that  he  trusted  too  much  to 
a  fallible  memory  to  secure  accuracy  in  his  quota- 
tions. But  notwithstanding  these  variations  in  the 
readings,  and  this  want  of  accuracy  in  the  quota- 
tions, there  is  a  very  striking  resemblance  between 
the  facts  and  incidents  of  the  Gospel  history  as  re- 
lated by  Justin,  and  as  related  in  our  Gospels.  The 
following  summary  of  the  facts  and  incidents  in  the 
life  of  Christ,  taken  from  Justin's  Apology  and 
Dialogue,  I  quote  from  Canon  Westcott : 

''Justin  tells  us  that  Christ  was  descended  from 
Abraham  through  Jacob,  Phares,  Jesse  and  David ;2 
that  the    angel    Gabriel   was    sent   to  foretell    His 


•  Pt.  I,  c.  2,  notes  A  and  B.  ''Dla.,  c.  120,  100. 


6o    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

birth  to  the  Virgin  Mary;'  that  this  was  a  fulfill- 
ment of  the  projohecy  of  Isaiah  (vii,  14)  ;'  that 
Joseph  was  forbidden  in  a  vision  to  put  away  his 
espoused  wife,  when  he  was  so  minded;*  that  our 
Saviour's  birth  at  Bethlehem  had  been  foretold  by 
Micah;*  that  his  parents  went  thither  from  Nazareth, 
where  they  dwelt,  in  consequence  of  the  enrollment 
under  Cyrenius;^  that  as  they  could  not  find  a  lodg- 
ing in  the  village  they  lodged  in  a  cave  close  by 
it,  where  Christ  was  born,  and  laid  by  Mary  in  a 
manger;^  that  while  there,  wise  men  from  Arabia, 
guided  by  a  star,  worshipped  Him,  and  offered  Him 
gold  and  frankincense  and  myrrh,  and  by  revelation 
were  commanded  not  to  return  to  Herod,  to  whom 
they  had  first  come;'  that  he  was  called  Jesus  as  the 
Saviour  of  His  people;^  that  by  the  command  of  God 
His  parents  fled  with  him  to  Egyjit  for  fear  of 
Herod,  and  remained  there  till  Archelaus  succeeded 
him;'  that  Herod,  being  deceived  by  the  wise  men, 
commanded  the  children  of  Bethlehem  to  be  put  to 
death,  so  that  the  prophecy  of  Jeremiah  was  fulfilled 
who  spoke  of  Rachel  weeping  for  her  children;'"  that 
Jesus  grew  after  the  common  manner  of  men,  work- 
ing as  a  carpenter,  and  so  waited  in  obscurity  thirty 
years,  more  or  less,  till  the  coming  of  John  the 
Baptist." 

1  Dia.,  c.  100.     Luke.  c.  1,  35,  38. 

2  Ap.,   1,  33.     Matt.  1,  23.  «  j/^_^  p.  78. 

*  Ap.,   1,  34.     Dia.,  c.  78.  ^  ^^,^  j^  34 

*  Dia.,  c.  78.  '  Dia.,  c.  78. 

8  A2}.,  1,  33.  »  Dia.,  cc.  78,  103. 

'"  Bid.  c.  78.  »  Dia.,  c.  88. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUSTINUS.  6i 

''He  tells  us,  moreover,  that  this  John,  the  son  of 
Elizabeth,  came  preaching  by  the  Jordan  the  baptism 
of  repentance,  wearing  a  leathern  girdle  and  a  rai- 
ment of  camel's  hair,  and  eating  only  locusts  and 
wild  honey;'  that  men  supposed  that  he  was  the 
Christ,  to  whom  he  answered,  1  am  not  the  Chrid,  lut  a 
voice  of  one  crying ;  for  He  that  is  mightier  than  I  icill  soon 
coTTie  {7%ei),  ivhoise  sandals  I  am  not  worthy  to  bear;  that 
when  Jesus  descended  into  the  Jordan  to  be  baptized 
by  him  a  fire  was  kindled  in  the  river,  and  when  he 
came  up  out  of  the  water  tlie  Holy  Spirit,  as  a  dove, 
lighted  upon  Him,  and  a  voice  came  from  heaven, 
saying,  Thou  art  My  Son;  this  clay  have  I  begotten  Thee;'^ 
that  immediately  after  His  baptism  the  devil  came  to 
Jesus  and  tempted  Him,  bidding  Him  at  last  to  wor- 
ship him/  He  further  adds  that  Christ  Himself 
recognized  John  as  bhe  Elias  who  should  j) recede 
Him,  to  whom  men  had  done  whatsoever  they  listed;  and 
thus  he  relates  how  Herod  put  John  into  prison,  and 
how  the  daughter  of  Herodias  danced  before  the 
king  on  his  birthday,  and  pleased  him,  so  that  he 
promised  to  grant  her  any  thing  she  wished,  and  that 
she,  by  her  mother's  desire,  asked  for  the  head  of 
John,  to  be  given  her  on  a  charger,  and  that  so  John 
was  put  to  death.* 

"  Henceforth,  after  speaking  in  general  terms  of  tlie 
miracles  of  Christ,  how  He  healed  all  manner  of  sickness 
and  disease,^  Justin  says  little  of  the  details  of   His 


'  Dia.,  c.  88.  *  Dia.,  cc.  88,  103. 

'  Dia.,  cc.  103,  135.  *  Dia.,  c.  49. 

5  Ap.,  1,  31,  48.     Diet.,  c.  69. 
6 


62     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

life  till  the  last  great  events.  Then  he  narrates 
Christ's  triumphal  entry  into  Jerusalem  from  Beth- 
phage  as  a  fulfillment  of  prophecy,'  the  (second) 
cleansing  of  the  temple,*  the  conspiracy  against 
Him,^  the  institution  of  the  Eucharist  for  the  remem- 
brance  of  Him,*  the  singing  of  the  Psalm  afterward,* 
the  agony  at  night  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  at  wliich 
three  of  His  disciples  were  present,^  the  prayer,'  the 
bloody  sweat,*  the  arrest,*  the  flight  of  the  Apostles,'" 
the  silence  before  Pilate,"  the  remand  to  Herod, '°  the 
crucifixion,  the  division  of  Christ's  raiment  by  lot,"' 
the  signs  and  words  of  mockery  of  the  bystanders,'* 
the  cry  of  sorrow,'^  the  last  words  of  resignation,'* 
the  burial  on  the  evening  of  the  day  of  the  pas- 
sion," the  resurrection  on  Sunday,'*  the  appearance 
to  the  Apostles  and  disciples,  how  Christ  opened  to 
them  the  Scriptures,'*  the  calumnies  of  the  Jews/^" 
the  commission  to  the  Apostles,'^'  the  ascension. "  -- 


>  Ap.,  1,  35.     Dia.,  c.  53. 

2  Bia.,  c.  17.  2  Dia.,  c.  104. 

4  A2J.,  1,  66..     Bia.,  cc.  41,  70. 

s  Bia.,  c.  106.  «  Bia.,  c.  99.  '  Bid. 

^  Bia.,  c.  103.     Ap.,  1,  50.     Bia.,  c.  53. 

9  Bia.,  c.  103.  ">  Bia.,  c.  53. 

i>  Bia.,  c.  103.  '«  Bia.,  c.  103. 

'3  Bia.,  c.  97.     A]).,  1,  35. 

'*  Ap.,  1,  38.     Bia.,  c.  101. 

'5  Bia.,  c.  99.  ^^  Bia.,  c.  105. 

^'  Bia.,  c.  97.  ^»  Ap.,  1,  67. 

'«  Bia.,  cc.  53,  106.     Ap.,  1,  50. 

=0  Bia.,  c.  108.  '•  Ap.,  1,  61. 

«  Bia.,  133.     A2h,  1,  46, 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUSTIN  US.  63 

Second.  It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  Memoirs 
of  the  Apostles  were  the  chief,  if  not  the  only,  soui-ce 
of  information  which  supplied  Justin  with  so  com- 
plete a  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  history.  He  him- 
self says  of  them,  "  they  contain  all  that  concerns 
our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."  '  Nevertheless,  he  nar- 
rates events  in  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  repeats  two  say- 
ings of  His,  not  found  in  our  Gospels,  as  follows  : 

"  And  then  when  Jesus  had  gone  to  the  river 
Jordan,  where  John  was  baptizing,  and  when  He 
had  stepped  into  the  water,  a  fire  was  kindled  in  the 
Jordan,  etc."  " 

"  He  [Jesus]  was  deemed  a  carpenter,  for  He  was 
in  the  habit  of  working  as  a  carpenter  when  among 
men,  making  ploughs  and  yokes,  by  which  He 
taught  the  symbols  of  righteousness  and  an  active 
life."  ' 

"  But  when  the  child  was  born  in  Bethlehem, 
since  Joseph  could  not  find  a  lodging  in  that  village, 
he  took  up  his  quarters  in  a  certain  cave  near- the 
village ;  and  while  they  were  there,  Mary  brought 
forth  the  Christ  and  placed  Him  in  a  manger,  and 
here  the  Magi  who  came  from  Arabia  found  him."  * 


'  Ap.,  33. 

«  Dia.,  c.  88.  ^  Ditto.  ••  Din.,  c.  78. 


64    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

"  Wherefore,  also,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  said,  '  In 
whatsoever  things  I  shall  take  you,  in  these  I  shall 
judge  you.' "  ^ 

"  Christ  said,  '  There  shall  be  schisms  and  here- 
sies.' " ' 

"We  do  not  know  the  source  whence  Justin  de- 
rived a  knowledge  of  the  events  and  sayings  here 
mentioned.  They  may  have  been  reported  in  some 
copy  of  our  Gospels  which  he  used,  or  in  some 
apocryphal  gospel,  or,  which  is  more  likely,  he  may 
have  learned  them  from  oral  tradition.  He  does  not 
mention  the  Memoirs  in  connection  with  them.  It 
would  be  bad  reasoning,  however,  to  conclude  that 
he  did  not  use  our  Gospels  at  all,  because  he  has 
mentioned  some  things  concerning  Jesus  in  his 
works,  which  are  not  found  in  them. 

Third.  It  is  objected  that  there  existed  at  the 
time  Justin  wrote  other  Gospels,  since  lost,  which 
he  denominated  Memoirs  of  the  Apostles y  and  that 
he  probably  used  one  or  more  of  these  lost  Gospels 
in  writing  his  works.  ■  Supernatural  Religion^ 
says : 

"  Vast  numbers  of  spurious  writings,  moreover,  bear- 
ing the  names  of  Apostles  and  their  followers,  and 

'  Bid.,  c.  47.  2  Dia.,  c.  35. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUSTINUS.  65 

claiming  more  or  less  direct  apostolic  authority,  were 
in  circulation  in  the  early  Church :  Gospels  according 
to  Peter,  to  Thomas,  to  James,  to  Judas,  according  to 
the  Apostles,  or  according  to  the  Twelve,  to  Barnabas, 
to  Matthias,  to  Nicodemus,  etc.,  and  ecclesiastical 
writers  bear  abundant  testimony  to  the  early  and 
rapid  growth  of  apocryphal  literature.  The  very 
names  of  most  of  such  apocryjiluil  Gospels  are  lost, 
whilst  of  others  wo  possess  considerable  information  ; 
but  nothing  is  more  certain  than  the  fact,  that  there 
existed  many  works  bearing  names  which  render  the 
attemjDt  to  interpret  the  title  of  Justin's  Gospel  as  a 
description  of  the  four  in  our  canon  a  mere  absurdity. 
The  words  of  Justin  evidently  imply  simply  that  the 
source  of  his  quotations  is  the  collective  recollections 
of  the  Apostles,  and  those  who  followed  them,  regard- 
ing the  life  and  teaching  of  Jesus."  ' 

Besides  the  Gospels  named  in  the  above  extracts, 
and  many  more  which  might  be  named,  Supernatural 
Religion  mentions  particularly  "  the  Gospel  accord- 
ing to  the  Hebrews."     He  says : 

"  The  same  Gospel  was  in  use  amongst  the  Ebion- 
ites,  and,  in  fact,  as  almost  all  critics  are  agreed,  the 
Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews,  under  various 
names,  such  as  the  Gospel  according  to  Peter,  accord- 
ing to  the  Apostles,  the  Nazarenes,  Ebionites, 
Egyptians,  etc.,  with  modifications  certainly,  but  sub- 
stantially the  same  work  was  circulated  very  widely 
throughout  the  early  Church."  "^ 

'  Pt.  II,  c.  3.     Art.  Jmtin  Martyr.  ^  Ditto. 

9 


66     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

He  says  further : 

"  But  enough  has  been  said  to  prove  that  it  [the 
Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews]  was  one  of  the  most 
ancient  and  most  vahied  evangelical  works,  and  to 
show  the  probability  that  Justin  Martyr,  a  Jewish 
Christian  living  amongst  those  who  are  known  to 
have  made  exclusive  use  of  this  Gospel,  may  well, 
like  his  contemporary  Hegesippus,  have  used  the 
Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews. " 

''It  is  not  necessary,  however,  for  the  purposes  of 
this  examination,  to  dwell  more  fully  upon  the  ques- 
tion as  to  what  specific  Gospel  now  no  longer  extant 
Justin  employed.  "We  have  shown  that  there  is  no 
evidence  that  he  made  use  of  any  of  our  Gospels,  and 
he  cannot,  therefore,  be  cited  even  to  prove  their  ex- 
istence, and  much  less  to  attest  the  authenticity  and 
character  of  records  whose  authors  he  does  not  once 
name.  On  the  other  hand  it  has  been  made  evident 
that  there  were  other  Gospels,  now  lost,  but  which 
then  enjoyed  the  highest  consideration,  from  which 
his  quotations  might  have  been,  and  probably  were, 
taken."  i 

A  few  fragments  only  of  any  of  these  lost  Gos- 
pels have  been  preserved  in  ancient  writings  and 
handed  down  to  us.  Consequently  we  do  not  know 
enough  about  their  general  contents  to  enable  us  to 
say  whether  or  not  Justin  could  have  found  in  them 
so  complete  an  account  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  of 
the  doctrines  he  taught,  as  he  has  given  us  in  his 

1  Pt.  II,  ch.  3. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUSTIN  US.  67 

works.  If  we  may  judge  of  their  contents  by  the 
contents  of  later  similar  writings,  which  are  still  ex- 
tant, we  would  say  he  certainly  could  not.  He 
states  many  things,  it  seems  to  us,  which  he  could 
have  found  nowhere  recorded  but  in  our  Gospels. 
If,  however,  Justin  did  use  any  apocryphal  Gospel 
(which  is  a  mere  assumption)  I  agree  with  Super- 
natural Religion.)  that,  "  The  Gospel  according  to 
the  Hebrews,"  under  some  one  of  its  various 
names,  was  in  all  probability  the  one  he  used. 
Although  this  Gospel  is  not  referred  to  by  name  by 
any  writer  before  the  year  185,  when  it  is  mentioned 
■  for  the  first  time  by  Hegesippus  (thirty-five  years 
after  Justin  wrote),  yet  inasmuch  as  it  is  known  to 
have  been  used  by  the  Ebionites,  who  originated  in 
the  Apostolic,  or  sub-apostolic  age,  its  earlier  antiq- 
uity is  generally  admitted,  Justin  was  in  all  prob- 
ability acquainted  with  it.  He  might  have  used  it 
in  writing  his  works ;  but  we  think  he  did  not,  for 
the  following  reasons :  First.  The  Memoirs  and  this 
Gospel  disagree  in  the  doctrines  they  respectively 
teach,  if  we  may  judge  of  the  doctrines  taught  in 
the  Gospel  by  the  tenets  held  by  those  who  used  it. 
The  Gospel  was  used  by  the  Ebionites  —  a  set  of 
Jews  half  converted  to  Christianity.  They  resided 
mostly  in  Palestine.      They  accepted  Jesus  as  the 


68     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

promised  Messiah,  the  son  of  David,  and  Supreme 
Lawgiver,  yet  held  tliat  he  was  a  mere  man,  like 
Moses  and  David,  sprung  by  natural  generation 
from  Joseph  and  Mary.  They  tauglit  that  circum- 
cision was  necessary  to  salvation  for  all  men.  That 
Paul  was  an  apostate  and  heretic  and  all  his  epis- 
tles were  to  be  discarded.^  The  Memoirs  on  the 
contrary  teach  that  Jesus  Christ  was  the  "  Son  of 
God,'"  was  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost  and  born 
of  the  Virgin  Mary,'  that  He  rose  from  the  dead 
and  ascended  into  Heaven,*  that  circumcision  is  not 
necessary  to  salvation.*  The  Memoirs  furnish  no 
evidence  of  hostility  to  Paul.  A  portion  of  these 
Ebionites,  under  the  name  of  Nazarenes,  used  a 
Gospel  according  to  "  Matthew,  in  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage." This  Gospel  and  the  Gospel  according  to 
the  Hebrews  are  generally  thought  by  critics  to  be 
the  same,  with  some  modifications."  These  Jewish 
Christians  became  separated,  little  by  little,  from 
the    Gentile  churches.     In  the  reign  of  Hadrian, 


'  E.  H.  E.,  B.  Ill,  c.  27.  Origen  vs.  Celsus,  5,  61.  Iren- 
(Bus,  B.  I,  c.  26,  §  2.  Schafi['s  History  Ch.  Church,  §  68. 
Hii^polytus,  7,  22. 

'  Ap.,  13,  22,  23.  Dia.,  116,  261.        ^^  Dia.,  100,  78,  76. 

*  Dia.,  132.  Ap.  46.  *  Dia.,  19,  24,  92. 

*  IrencBUS,  B.  I,  c.  26,  §  2.  Alzog's  Church  History,  c.  5, 
§58. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUSTINUS.  69 

117-138,  those  that  were  residing  in  Jerusalem  were 
driven  out  of  that  city,  and  were  not  permitted  by 
that  Emperor  to  return.  A  church  composed 
mostly  of  Gentile  Christians,*  with  Marcus  as  bishop, 
was  established  there.  Before  the  end  of  the  fifth 
century,  these  sects  ceased  to  exist.  The  written 
gospel  they  had  used,  save  a  few  fragments,  perished 
with  them."^  Now,  Justin  was  not  a  Jew,  either  by 
birth  or  religion ;  but  a  Roman  by  birth,'  and  a 
catholic  by  religion.  He  resided  at  the  time  he 
wrote  his  principal  works,  not  in  Syria,  where  most 
of  the  Jewish  Christians  resided,  but  in  Rome.*  Is 
it  probable  that  he,  a  Gentile  Christian,  derived  his 
knowledge  of  the  great  leading  Catholic  doctrines 
of  the  Christian  religion,  so  fully  shown  in  his 
works,  from  a  Gospel  used  by  a  small  sect  of  half- 
christianized  Palestinian  Jews  ?  Where  did  Jus- 
tin get  his  ideas  of  the  miraculous  conception  of 
Jesus,  His  resurrection  from  the  dead,'  and  His 
ascension  into  Heaven,'  but  from  our  Gospels? 
Certainly  not  from  the  "  Gospel  according  to  the 
Hebrews." 


'  Eusebius,  B.  IV,  c.  16.     Oibion's  Borne,  c.  15. 

'■'  Neander,  vol.  I,  §  4.  ^  Ap.,  c.  1. 

*  Introductory  notice  to  his  works,  Ante-Nicene  Library. 

»  Ap.,  67.  6  Dia.,  133.     Ap.,  1,  46. 


70    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

Second.  Justin,  when  giving  an  account  of  the 
Christian  worsliip  in  the  Catholic  churches  of  his 
day,  says  that  "  the  Memoirs,  we  read  on  Sundays 
with  the  prophets."^  But  there  is  no  evidence  that 
the  "  Gospel  to  the  Hebrews "  was  ever  read  on 
Sundays  or  any  other  day  in  any  Christian  congre- 
gation, not  heretical  or  not  separated  from  the  great 
body  of  the  church.  Whether  or  not  it  was  read  in 
the  Ebionitic  assemblies,  history  does  not  say.  It 
probably  was.  The  numerous  heretics  and  schisma- 
tics of  that  and  the  next  succeeding  age  used  a 
great  number  of  spurious  Gospels.  Nearly  every 
sect  had  its  special  Gospel.  Irenseus,  in  speaking 
of  the  heretic  Marcosians,  says  they  "forged  writ- 
ings to  bewilder  the  minds  of  foolish  men,  and  of 
such  as  are  ignorant  of  the  scriptures  of  truth.'" 
The  Yalentinians  called  their  recent  writings  "  the 
Gospel  of  Truth.'"  There  was  the  "  Gospel  accord- 
ing to  Thomas,"  "  according  to  the  Egyptians  ;  "  * 
"  The  Gospel  of  Peter,"  condemned  by  Serapion, 
bishop  of  Antioch  f  "  The  preaching  of  Peter," 
mentioned  by  Clement  ;*     "The  Gospel  of  Judas  ;'" 


»  Ap.,  67.  '  B.  I,  c.  20. 

»  B.  3,  c.  11.  *  Ilippolytus,  B.  5,  c.  2. 

*  H.  E.,  B.  6,  c.  12.  «  B.  I,  c.  29;  B.  VI,  c.  1,  15. 

'  Irenmus,  B.  I,  c.  31,  §  1. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUSTIN  US.  71 

"  The  Gospel  of  Marcion,"  and  many  others.  The 
evangelist  Luke  says  that  "many  "  had  undertaken 
to  write  Gospels  before  he  wrote  his.^  But  the  evi- 
dence fails  to  prove,  that  any  of  these  numerous 
Gospels,  all  of  which  perished  with  the  dying  out  of 
the  sects  that  used  them,  were  ever  read  in  the 
Catholic  churches,  or  ever  came  into  serious  compe- 
tition, in  any  way,  with  our  canonical  Gospels.  Sera- 
pion,  bishop  of  Antioch,  writing  about  the  years 
180  to  200,  in  speaking  of  the  "  Gospel  of  Peter," 
says :  "  We,  brethren,  receive  Peter  and  the  other 
Apostles  as  Christ  himself.  But  those  writings 
which  falsely  go  under  their  name,  as  we  are  well 
acquainted  with  them,  we  reject  and  know,  also,  we 
have  not  received  such  handed  down  to  us."^ 

Third.  A  few  fragments  of  the  "  Gospel  accord- 
ing to  the  Hebrews,"  and  the  "  Gospel  according  to 
Matthew  in  the  Hebrew  language,"  have  been  pre- 
served to  us  in  the  writings  of  St,  Jerome  and  Epi- 
phanius.  They  may  be  found  collected  together  in 
Canon  Westcott's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the 
Gospels,  Appendix  D.  Also,  in  Mr,  "Waite's 
History  of  the  Christian  Religion,  chapter  four. 
They  furnish  no  evidence  that  Justin  did  or  did  not 


I  Luke,  c.  1,  V.  1.  '  E.  H.  E.,  B.  VI,  c.  12. 


72    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

use  these  Gospels.  According  to  a  fragment  of 
"  Tlie  Gospel  according  to  Matthew,"  that  Gospel 
contained  the  statement,  "  that  when  Jesus  came  up 
from  the  water  the  Heavens  were  opened,  and  He 
saw  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  in  the  form  of  a  dove, 
which  came  down  and  came  upon  him,  and  a 
voice  came  from  Heaven,  saying,  '  Thou  art  My 
beloved  Son;  in  Thee  1  am  well  pleased.'  And,' 
again,  '  to-day  have  I  begotten  Thee,'  and  imme- 
diately a  great  light  shone  round  about  the  place." 
Here  the  light  is  represented  as  shining  around 
about  the  place  after  Jesus  had  come  out  of  the  water. 
Justin's  account  of  the  matter  is  different.  He  says 
that,  "  when  Jesus  had  stepped  into  the  water  a  fire 
was  kindled  in  the  river."^  No  fragment  of  either 
of  these  Gospels  contains  any  allusion  to  the  fact 
that  Jesus  was  either  lodged  or  born  in  a  "  cave," 
nor  to  His  having  made  "  ploughs  and  yokes,"  nor 
to  the  two  sayings  recorded  by  Justin. 

It  appears  to  me  that  the  conclusion  fairly  to  be 
drawn  from  Justin's  testimony,  is  that  the  Memoirs 
were  the  "  Diatessaron "  of  Tatian  and  the  four 
Gospels  denominated  by  Irengeus,  thirty  years  after 

1  Din.,  88. 


TESTIMONY  OF  PAPIAS.  73 

Justin   wrote,  Matthew,   Mark,    Luke  and   John. 
Mutato  'nomine,  de  te  fahula  narratur.  -^ 

The  next  witness  whose  testimony  we  will  ex- 
amine is  Papias.  Eusebius  says  of  him :  "  At  this 
time  {%.  e.,  between  the  years  98  and  117)  Papias 
was  well  known  as  bishop  of  the  church  of  Hiera- 
polis,  a  man  well  skilled  in  all  manner  of  learning 
and  well  acquainted  with  the  Scriptures."  He  knew 
the  daughters  of  the  Apostle  Philip,  who  lived  in 
the  same  city  with  him,  and  who  gave  him  a  won- 
derful account  of  a  person  being  raised  from  the 
dead.  These  daughters  of  Philip  lived  to  an  ad- 
vanced age,  according  to  Polycrates,  bishop  of 
Ephesus,  and  were  buried  in  the  city  of  their  resi- 
dence." Papias  says  of  himself  that  he  was  a 
hearer  of  Aristion  and  of  the  presbyter  John,  "  dis- 
ciples of  the  Lord  and  companions  of  the  Apostles."* 


^  On  reviewing  the  testimony  of  Justin,  Dr.  Sanday  con- 
cludes "that  he  either  used  our  present  Gospels,  or  else  a 
later  work  of  the  nature  of  a  harmony  based  on  them.  The 
theory  that  he  was  ignorant  of  our  Gospels  in  any  shape  is 
wholly  untenable."  Tlie  Gospels  of  the  Second  Century.  Ch. 
—  Jiistin  Marty n. 

Tischendorf  thinks  that  Justin  used  Apocryphal  Gospels, 
particularly  the  Protevangelion  of  James  in  the  Acts  of 
Pilate  as  well  as  our  Gospels.  — When  were  Our  Gospels 
Written  f    [See  AjypendixR] 

^  H.  K,  B.  Ill,  c.  31.  '  S.  E.,  c.  39. 

10 


74    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

Irenaeus  says  that  he  was  "the  hearer  of  John«and 
the  companion  of  Poly  carp,"  and  that  he  had  writ- 
ten a  work  in  five  books.  He  makes  considerable 
extracts  from  the  fourth  book,  of  which,  however, 
we  need  take  no  notice,  they  being  irrelevant  to  our 
inquiry.^  The  writings  of  Papias  are  all  lost  except 
the  few  fragments  preserved  to  us  in  the  writings 
of  Irenseus  and  Eusebius.  Hierapolis  was  a  city  in 
Phrygia  in  Asia  Minor.  The  church  there  is  men- 
tioned by  St.  Pau?.  Papias  is  the  earliest  writer 
who  mentions  any  of  the  Gospels  by  name,  and  as 
there  is  much  controversy  among  modern  critics  in 
regard  to  the  identity  of  the  Gospels  named  by  him, 
I  shall  here  introduce,  with  its  context,  the  chapter 
from  Eusebius  which  contains  all  his  testimony  on 
the  subject. 

"  There  are  said  to  be  five  books  of  Papias,  which 
bear  the  title  '  Interpretation  of  our  Lord's  Declara- 
tions.' Irengeus,  also,  makes  mention  of  these  as 
the  only  works  written  by  him,  in  the  following 
terms:  *  These  things  are  attested  by  Papias,  who 
was  John's  hearer  and  the  associate  of  Polycarji,  an 
ancient  writer,  who  mentions  them  in  the  fourth 
book  of  his  works.  For  he  has  written  a  work  in 
five  books.'  So  far  Irengeus.  But  Papias  himself,  in 
the  preface  to  his  discourses,  by  no  means  asserts 

1  IrenffiiHj  B.  V,  c.  39.  ^  Colossians,  c.  4,  v.  13. 


TESTIMONY  OF  PAPIAS.  75 

that  he  was  a  hearer  and  an  eye-witness  of  the  holy 
Apostles,  but  informs  us  that  he  received  the  doctrines 
of  faith  from  their  intimate  friends,  which  he  states 
in  the  following  words :  '  But  I  shall  not  regret  to 
subjoin  to  my  interpretations,  also,  for  your  benefit, 
whatsoever  I  have  at  any  time  accurately  ascertained 
and  treasured  up  in  my  memory,  as  I  have  received 
it  from  the  elders,  and  have  recorded  it  in  order  to 
give  additional  confirmation  to  the  truth,  by  my  tes- 
timony. For  I  have  never,  like  many,  delighted  to 
hear  those  that  tell  many  things,  but  those  that  teach 
the  truth;  neither  those  that  record  foreign  precepts, 
but  those  that  are  given  from  the  Lord,  to  our  faith, 
and  that  came  from  the  truth  itself.  But  if  I  met 
with  any  one  who  had  been  a  follower  of  the  elders 
anywhere,  I  made  it  a  point  to  inquire  what  were  the 
declarations  of  the  elders.  What  was  said  by  Andrew, 
Peter,  or  Philip.  What  by  Thomas,  James,  John, 
Matthew,  or  any  other  of  the  disciples  of  our  Lord. 
What  was  said  by  Aristion,  and  the  presbyter  John, 
disciples  of  the  Lord;  for  I  do  not  think  that  I  de- 
rived so  much  benefit  from  books  as  from  the  living 
voice  of  those  that  are  still  surviving.'  Where  it  is 
also  proper  to  observe  the  name  of  John  is  twice 
mentioned.  The  former  of  which  he  mentions  with 
Peter  and  James  and  Matthew,  and  the  other  Apos- 
tles; evidently  meaning  the  evangelists.  But  in  a 
separate  point  of  his  discourse,  he  ranks  the  other 
John  with  the  rest  not  included  in  the  number  of 
Apostles,  placing  Aristion  before  him.  He  disting- 
uishes him  plainly  by  the  name  of  presbyter.  So  that 
it  is  here  proved  that  the  statement  of  those  is  true. 


76    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

who  assert  there  were  two  of  the  same  name  in  Asia, 
that  there  were  also  two  tombs  in  Ephesus,  and  that 
both  are  called  John's  even  to  this  day;  which  it  is 
particularly  necessary  to  observe.  For  it  is  probable 
that  the  second,  if  it  be  not  allowed  that  it  was  the 
first,  saw  the  Revelation  ascribed  to  John.  And  the 
same  Pajiias,  of  whom  we  now  speak,  professes  to 
have  received  the  declarations  of  the  Apostles  from 
those  that  were  in  company  with  them,  and  says  also 
that  he  was  a  hearer  of  Aristion  and  the  presbyter 
John.  For  as  he  has  often  mentioned  them  by  name, 
he  also  gives  their  statements  in  his  own  works. 
These  matters,  I  trust,  have  not  been  uselessly  ad- 
duced. But  it  may  be  important  also  to  subjoin 
other  declarations  to  these  passages  from  Paj)ias,  in 
which  he  gives  certain  wonderful  accounts,  together 
with  other  matters  that  he  seems  to  have  received  by 
tradition.  That  the  Apostle  Philip  continued  at 
Hierapolis,  with  his  daughters,  has  been  already 
stated  above.  But  we  must  now  show  how  Papias, 
coming  to  them,  received  a  wonderful  account  from 
the  daughters  of  Philip.  For  he  writes  that  in  his 
time  there  was  one  raised  from  the  dead.  Another 
wonderful  event  happened  respecting  Justus,  sur- 
named  Barsabas,  who,  though  he  drank  a  deadly 
poison,  exjierienced  nothing  injurious,  through  the 
grace  of  the  Lord.  This  same  Justus  is  mentioned  in 
the  book  of  Acts,  after  the  resurrection,  as  the  one 
over  whom,  together  with  Matthias,  the  holy  Apostles 
prayed,  in  order  to  fill  up  their  number,  by  casting 
lots,  to  supply  the  place  of  Judas  the  traitor.  The 
passage  is  as  follows:  *  And  they  placed  two,  Joseph, 


TESTIMONY  OF  PAP  I  AS.  77 

called  Barsabas,  who  was  surnamed  Justus,  and 
Matthias.  And  having  prayed,  they  said.'  The 
same  historian  also  gives  otlier  accounts,  which  he 
says  he  adds  as  received  by  him  from  unwritten  tra- 
dition, likewise  certain  strange  jiarables  of  our  Lord, 
and  of  his  doctrine,  and  some  otlier  matters  rather 
too  fabulous.  In  these  he  says  there  would  be  a  cer- 
tain millennium  after  the  resurrection,  and  that  there 
would  be  a  corporeal  reign  of  Christ  on  this  very 
earth;  which  things  he  appears  to  have  imagined,  as 
if  they  were  authorized  by  the  apostolic  narrations, 
not  understanding  correctly  those  matters  which  they 
propounded  mystically  in  their  representions.  For 
he  was  very  limited  in  his  comprehension,  as  is  evi- 
dent from  his  discourses;  yet  he  was  the  cause  why 
most  of  the  ecclesiastical  writers,  urging  the  antiq- 
uity of  the  man,  were  carried  away  by  a  similar 
opinion;  as,  for  instance,  Irenseus,  or  any  other  that 
adopted  such  sentiments.  He  has  also  inserted  in 
his  work  other  accounts  given  by  the  above  men- 
tioned Aristion,  respecting  our  Lord,  as  also  the 
traditions  of  the  presbyter  John,  to  which  referring 
those  that  are  desirous  of  learning  them,  we  shall 
now  subjoin  to  the  extracts  from  him,  already  given, 
a  tradition  which  he  sets  forth  concerning  Mark,  who 
wrote  the  gospel  in  the  following  words  :  '  And  John 
the  presbyter  also  said  this,  Mark  being  the  interpre- 
ter of  Peter,  1  whatsoever  he  recorded  he  wrote  with 


'  Jerome,  in  Catalogo,  calls  Mark  the  interpreter  of  Peter 
from  this  place  of  Papias,  as  I  judge.  Hence  it  is  that 
many  of  the  Greeks  write,  tliat  the  Gospel  of  Mark  was  die- 


78     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

great  accuracy,  but  not,  however,  in  the  order  in 
which  it  was  spoken  or  done  by  our  Lord,  for  he 
neither  heard  nor  followed  our  Lord,  but,  as  before 
said,  he  was  in  company  with  Peter,  who  gave  him 
such  instruction  as  was  necessary,  but  not  to  give  a 
history  of  our  Lord's  discourses:  wherefore  Mark 
has  not  erred  in  any  thing,  by  writing  some  things  as 
he  has  recorded  them;  for  he  was  carefully  attentive 
to  one  thing,  not  to  pass  by  any  thing  that  he  heard, 
or  to  state  any  thing  falsely  in  these  accounts.' 
Such  is  the  account  of  Paj^ias,  respecting  Mark.  Of 
Matthew  he  has  stated  as  follows  :  '  Matthew  com- 
posed his  history  in  the  Hebrew  dialect,'  and  every 
one  translated  it  as  he  was  able.'  The  same  author 
(Papias)  made  use  of  testimonies  from  the  First 
Epistle  of  John,  and  likewise  from  that  of  Peter.  He 
also  gives  another  history  of  a  woman,  who  had  been 
accused  of  many  sins  before  the  Lord,  which  is  also 
contained  in  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews. 
And  this  may  be  noted  as  a  necessary  addition  to 
what  we  have  before  stated."  ">■ 


tated  by  Peter.  So  Athanasius  in  his  treatise  De  Libris 
Sacra?  Scriptura;.  Which,  how  it  is  to  be  understood, 
Papias  declares  in  this  place.  For  it  is  not  to  be  supposed 
that  Mark  wrote  his  Gospel  from  the  mouth  of  Peter  dic- 
tating to  him;  but,  when  he  heard  Peter  preaching  the 
word  of  God  to  the  Jews  in  Hebrew,  Mark  carefully 
digested  those  things  in  the  Greek  language,  which  con- 
cerned Christ.     Vales. 

'  The  author  here,  doubtless,  means  the  Syro-Chaldaic, 
which  is  sometimes  in  Scriptures,  and  primitive  writers, 
called  Hebrew.  ""  U.  E.,  B,  IH,  c.  39. 


TESTIMONY  OF  PAP  I  AS.  79 

The  reader  will  notice  that  Eusebius  in  the  above 
extract  speaks  disparagingly  of  the  understanding 
of  Papias,  because  Papias  believed  "  there  would  be 
a  certain  millennium  after  the  resurrection,  and  that 
there  would  be  a  corporeal  reign  of  Christ  on  this 
very  earth."  But  this  belief,  however  it  may  aifect 
the  question  of  the  narrowness  or  bi-eadth  of  his  un- 
derstanding, does  not  in  the  least  detract  from  his 
credibility,  as  a  witness  to  facts.  It  was  a  belief 
very  commonly  entertained  by  Christians  in  his  day. 
No  critic,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  attempted  to  dis- 
credit his  testimony.  It  cannot  be  fairly  denied 
that  he  recorded  truthfully  what  John  told  him 

touching  the  origin  of  the  writings  of  Mark  and 
Matthew.  Nor  can  it  be  fairly  denied  th^it  Euse- 
bius has  correctly  copied  the  record.  And  if  botli 
these  facts  are  so,  then,  we  have  in  his  testimony 
very  strong  evidence  of  the  existence  of  these  two 
Gospels,  not  only  at  the  time  Papias  wrote,  which 
the  author  of  Supernatural  Religion  thinks  was 
about  the  year  160,  and  Canon  Westcott  thinks  was 
in  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  say  about  the  year  1-iO  ; 
but  also  at  the  time  presbyter  John  first  acquired 
his  knowledge  of  their  existence,  which  must  have 
been  before  the  death  of  the  last  surviving  Apostle, 
or  soon  after ;  for  the  presbyter  was,  according  to 


8o    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

the  above  extract  from  Eusebius,  a  contemporary  of 
the  last  of  the  Apostles,  or  of  their  immediate  fol- 
lowers. 

But  the  attempt  is  made  by  critics  to  avoid  the 
force  of  Papias'  testimony  by  affirming  that  John 
did  not  have  in  mind  our  two  canonical  Gospels, 
when  he  spoke  of  Mark  as  being  the  interpreter  of 
Peter,  and  as  having  recorded  what  Peter  had  told 
him,  and  when,  too,  he  spoke  of  Matthew,  as  hav- 
ing composed  his  history  or  Logia  in  the  Hebrew 
dialect,  but  that  he  had  in  mind  other  and  older 
writings  bearing  the  same  names.  The  reasons  as- 
signed for  this  opinion,  as  to  Mark's  Gospel,  are : 

First.  That  it  does  not  exhibit  "  such  unmistaka- 
ble traces  of  Petrine  influence "  as  we  might 
reasonably  expect  in  a  Gospel  written  by  the  inter- 
preter of  Peter,  and  therefore  the  Gospel  referred 
to  by  the  presbyter  cannot  be  our  Gospel.  It  does 
not  clearly  place  Peter  at  the  head  in  the  catalogue 
of  Apostles ;  it  does  not  contain  the  text,  "  Thou 
art  Peter  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my 
church ; "  it  does  not  mention  his  walking  upon  the 
sea;  nor  does  it  contain  the  text,  "  Simon,  Simon, 
behold  Satan  hath  desired  to  have  you  that  he  may 
sift  you  as  wheat,  but  I  have  prayed  for  thee,  that 
thy  faith  fail  not ;  and  when  thou  art  converted. 


TESTIMONY  OF  PAP  I  AS.  8i 

strengthen  thy  brethren,"  which  is  given  by  Luke  ; 
it  does  not  mention  Peter's  being  sent  to  prepare 
the  passover,  but  only  that  "  two  disciples  "  were 
sent.^  These,  and  other  like  omissions,  together 
with  the  fact  that  no  mention  is  made  of  any  par- 
ticular sayings  or  doings  of  Peter,  which  it  may  be 
reasonably  supposed  must  have  been  known  to  his 
interpreter,  go  to  show,  it  is  argued,  that  the 
Gospel  spoken  of  by  the  presbyter  John  was  not 
our  Gospel, 

If  it  should  be  thought  that  these  criticisms  have 
any  force  in  them,  it  may  be  said  in  answer  that  if 
Peter  exerted  any  influence  at  all  in  regard  to  mat- 
ters to  be  mentioned  or  omitted  in  the  Gospel,  as, 
according  to  the  tradition,  he  undoubtedly  did,  he 
would  not  be  apt  to  use  that  inflnencc  to  make  him- 
self conspicuous,  if  he  could  conscientiously  avoid 
doing  so.  Peter,  though  a  bold,  was  not  an  egotis- 
tic and  vain-glorious  man.  It  is  to  be  remembered 
too,  that  he  had  once  denied  his  Master  with  curs- 
ing and  swearing.  He  repented  bitterly,  and  prob- 
ably forever  afterwards  thought  the  less  he  could 
say  about  himself,  consistently  with  truth  and  duty, 
to  Mark  or  any  one  else,  the  better. 


'  Supernatural  Religion,  pt.  II,  c.  4,  §  2. 
11 


82    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

Bat  second  J  it  is  argued  that  the  description  John 
gives  of  the  Gospel  he  had  in  mind  does  not 
correspond  with  our  Gospel,  and  therefore  he  does 
not  refer  to  it,  but  to  some  other.  The  description 
is  that  Mark  recorded  what  was  spoken  or  done  by 
our  Lord  "with  great  accuracy,  but  not,  however, 
in  the  order  in  which  it  was  spoken  or  done  by  our 
Lord,  for  he  neither  heard  nor  followed  our  Lord, 
but,  as  before  said,  he  was  in  company  with  Peter, 
who  gave  him  such  instruction  as  was  necessary,  but 
not  to  give  a  history  of  our  Lord's  discourses.'"  The 
argument,  as  stated  by  the  author  of  Supernatural 
Meligion,  is  then  conducted  as  follows : 

"  This  description  would  lead  us  to  expect  a  work 
composed  of  fragmentary  reminiscences  of  the  teaching 
of  Peter,  without  regular  sequence  or  connection. 
The  absence  of  orderly  arrangement  is  the  most 
prominent  feature  in  the  description,  and  forms  the 
burden  of  the  whole.  Mark  writes  'what  he  re- 
membered ; '  'he  did  not  arrange  in  order  the  things 
that  were  cither  said  or  done  by  Christ  ;'  and  then 
follow  the  apologetic  expressions  of  explanation  —  he 
was  not  himself  a  hearer  or  follower  of  the  Lord,  but 
derived  his  information  from  the  occasional  preach- 
ing of  Peter,  who  did  not  attempt  to  give  a  consecu- 
tive narrative.    Now  it  is  impossible  in  the  work  of 


I  E.  H.  K,  B.  Ill,  c.  39. 


TESTIMONY  OF  PAP  I  AS.  83 

Mark  here  described  to  recognize  our  present  second 
Gospel,  which  does  not  depart  in  any  important  de- 
gree from  the  order  of  the  other  tAvo  Synoptics,  and 
which,  throughout,  has  the  most  evident  ■  character 
of  orderly  arrangement.  The  Gospel  025ens  formally, 
and  after  presenting  John  the  Baptist  as  the  Mes- 
senger sent  to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord,  proceeds 
to  the  baptism  of  Jesus,  his  temptation,  his  entry 
upon  public  life,  and  his  calling  of  the  discii)les. 
Then  after  a  consecutive  narrative  of  his  teaching  and 
works,  the  history  ends  with  a  full  and  consecutive 
account  of  the  last  events  in  the  life  of  Jesus,  his 
trial,  crucifixion  and  resurrection.  There  is  in  the 
Gospel  every  characteristic  of  artistic  and  orderly 
arrangement,  from  the  striking  introduction  by  the 
prophetic  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness  to  the  solemn 
close  of  the  marvellous  history.  The  great  majority 
of  critics,  therefore,  are  agreed  in  concluding  that  the 
account  of  the  presbyter  John  recorded  by  Papias 
does  not  apply  to  our  second  canonical  Gospel  at  all."' 

In  support  of  the  last  proposition  in  the  above 
extract,  the  author  cites  thirty-one  writers,  mostly 
Germans,  and  against  it  twenty-two,  also  mostly 
Germans.  It  seems  to  me  that  mere  criticisms  upon 
the  order  of  arrangement  of  the  contents  of  an 
ancient  literary  work  of  a  fragmentary  character, 
like  the  Gospel  of  Mark,  ought  to  go  but  a  very 
little  way  as  evidence  in  deciding  the  question  of  its 


'  6th  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  3C3. 


84    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

authorship  when  such  criticisms  conflict  with  the 
historic  account  —  particularly  when  the  critics  dis- 
agree as  badly  as  they  do  in  this  case.  But  why 
should   not   the   presbyter   himself  be   entitled  to 

criticise  our  Gospel,  as  well  as  other  persons,  with- 
out its  being  supposed  he  referred  to  some  other 
Gospel  ?  If  his  criticism  is  so  bad  that  it  does  not 
seem  to  us  to  apply  to  our  Gospel,  the  most  we  can 
say  is,  he  blundered  in  his  criticism.  And  if  he 
were  living,  he  might,  perhaps,  say  the  same  thing 
in  regard  to  ours.  But  let  us  see  what  his  criticism 
is.  He  says :  "  Whatsoever  Mark  recorded  he  wrote 
with  great  accuracy,  but  not,  however,  in  the  order 
in  which  it  was  spoken  or  done  by  our  Lord." 
And  is  not  this  criticism  true  and  justly  applicable 
to  our  Mark?  Who  M'ill  say  that  he  has  recorded 
the  sayings  or  doings  of  our  Lord  in  the  order  in 
which  they  occurred?  We  know  he  has  not.  He 
has  paid  very  little  attention  to  the  chronology  of 
events.  His  criticism,  it  seems  to  us,  fits  our  Gos- 
pel very  well.  Many  critics  think  that  the  other 
Gospels  are  likewise  defective  in  orderly  arrange- 
ment ;  that  they  are  all  mere  fragmentary  notices, 
and  not  complete  histories.  Be  that  as  it  may,  it  is 
certainly  true  that  Mark  has  not  recorded  the  "  say- 
ings and  doings  of  our  Lord  in  the  order  in  which 


TESTIMONY  OF  PAP  IAS.  85 

they  were  spoken  or  done  by  him ;"  and  this  is  all 
that  the  presbyter  says  on  the  subject.^ 

If  our  Mark  contained  an  account  of  any  event 
which  took  place  after  Papias  wrote,  or  named  any 
person  who  lived  after  that  time,  then  we  might 
well  believe  that  Papias  and  the  presbyter  did  not 
have  in  their  minds  our  Gospel,  but  some  other 
bearing  the  same  name.  But  our  Gospel  is  guilty 
of  no  such  anachronism ;  it  contains  no  such  ac- 
count ;  it  names  no  such  person.  I  think  a  plain, 
unlettered  man,  who  makes  no  pretensions  to  a 
knowledge  of  tlie  art  of  criticism,  but  one,  never- 
theless, who  is  well  acquainted  with  the  history  of 
the  period  in  which  Christianity  took  its  rise,  would 
be  apt  to  say,  on  a  careful  reading  of  the  Gospel, 
that  he  can  find  nothing  in  it,  and  nothing  left  out 
of  it,  inconsistent  with  the  idea  that  it  was  written 
in  the  Apostolic  age  and  by  the  person  whose  name 
it  bears,  and  that  it  is  referred  to  by  Papias  and 
the  presbyter.     It  does  not  condemn  itself. 


'  Dr.  Sanday,  iu  his  Oospeh  of  the  Second  Century,  ch.  "  Pa- 
pias," gives  it  as  his  opinion  that  our  Mark  is  written  in 
order,  and  that  it  is  not  an  original  document.  "These 
two  characteristics,"  he  says,  "make  it  improbable  that  it 
is,  in  its  present  shape,  the  document  to  which  Papias  al- 
ludes." 


86    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

When  Papias  proves  that  a  Gospel  existed  in  his 
day,  known  as  a  "Gospel  by  Mark,  the  interpreter 
of  Peter,"  and  when  Irenaeus,  forty  years  after- 
ward, proves  that  a  Gospel  existed  in  his  day, 
known  as  "  a  Gospel  by  Mark,  the  interpreter  of 
Peter,"  there  arises  a  strong  presumption,  in  the 
absence  of  any  other  evidence,  that  these  two  Gos- 
pels, bearing  the  same  name,  are  one  and  the  same. 
This  presumption  is  so  strong  that  it  cannot  be  met 
and  overcome  by  such  criticisms  alone  as  we  have 
quoted  and  referred  to.  It  can  only  be  met  and 
overcome  by  additional  proof,  showing  the  actual 
loss  of  the  Papian  Gospel,  and  the  substitution  of 
the  Irengean  in  its  place.  The  loss  of  the  one,  and 
the  substitution  of  the  other,  must  both  be  proved. 
But  this  proof  does  not  exist.  The  author  of  Su- 
pernatiiral  Religion  says  :  "  It  is  not  necessary  for 
us  to  account  for  the  manner  in  which  the  work  to 
which  the  presbyter  John  referred  disappeared,  and 
the  present  Gospel  according  to  Mark  became  sub- 
stituted for  it."  ^  We  think  the  author  presumes 
too  far  on  the  good  nature  of  his  readers.  It  is 
necessary  for  him,  in  our  judgment,  in  order  to 
maintain  his  theory,  to  prove  the  disappearance  of 


'  6th  edition,  page  366. 


TESTIMONY  OF  PAPIAS.  87 

the  one  and  the  substitution  of  tlie  other.  He 
says :  "  The  merely  negative  evidence  that  our 
actual  Gospel  is  not  the  work  described  by  Papias 
is  sufficient  for  our  purpose."  ^  The  "  negative 
evidence"  here  spoken  of  consists  of  the  "criti- 
cisms "  which  we  have  referred  to,  and  some  others 
of  a  similar  character.  We  have  quoted  the  greater 
part  and  the  strongest  of  them.  In  our  judgment, 
the  presumption  in  favor  of  the  fact  that  the  Pa- 
pi  an  and  Irentean  Gospels  are  one  and  the  same 
remains  unimpaired  by  the  "  negative  evidence." 
Christians  in  modern  times  do  not  lose  their  Gos- 
pels, nor  substitute  a  newer  Gospel  in  place  of  an 
older.  Kor  have  we  any  evidence  that  the  primi- 
tive Christians,  in  any  one  instance,  ever  did  this; 
or  that  they  regarded  th^ir  sacred  writings  with  any 
less  reverence  than  Christians  regard  theirs  at  the 
present  day.  Nor  have  we  any  evidence  of  the 
existence,  in  ancient  times,  of  any  other  Gospel 
bearing  the  name  of  Mark,  than  the  one  which  is 
referred  to  by  both  Papias  and  Irenseus.  Not  ex- 
isting, no  Gospel  bearing  that  name,  apocryphal  or 
genuine,  has  been  lost,  nor  any  other  substituted  in 
its  place.' 


■  6th  edition,  page  366. 

*  Ernest  Renan  thinks  that  the  description  of  the  Loffia 


88     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

The  account  Papias  gi^es  of  Matthew's  Gospel 
is  :  "  Matthew  composed  his  history,  Logia,  in  the 
Hebrew  dialect,  and  every  one  translated  it  as  he 
was  able."  The  critics  have  raised  the  question 
whether  the  Logia  here  spoken  of  means  oracles, 
discourses,  or  sayings  only ;  or  whether  it  means, 
also,  a  narrative  of  events.  If  the  latter,  which  is 
the  better  opinion,  then  it  may  include  our  Gospel. 
Clement  of  E.ome  uses  Logia  of  God  as  meaning 
sacred  Scriptures.'  So,  also,  Polycarp  uses  Logia 
of  the  Lord  as  meaning  Scrij^tures.*  But  it  is  ar- 
gued whether  the  signification  of  the  word  is  broad 
enough  to  include  our  Gospel  or  not ,  our  Gospel, 
according  to  the  tradition,  was  written  in  the 
Hebrew  or  Aramaic  language,  and  we  have  only  a 


and  Mark's  Gospel,  given  by  Papias  and  the  presby- 
ter, correspond  with  our  Gospels.  He  says:  "  Certain  it  is 
that  these  two  descriptions  correspond  very  Avell  to  the 
general  physiognomy  of  the  two  books  now  called  the 
"Gospel  according  to  Matthew"  and  the  "Gospel  accord- 
ing to  Mark,"  the  first  characterized  by  its  long  discourses; 
the  second  full  of  anecdote,  much  more  exact  than  the  first 
in  regard  to  minute  acts,  brief  to  dryness,  poor  in  dis- 
courses, and  badly  composed."  He  regards  all  our  Gospels 
as  genuine. — Int/roduction  to  Life  of  Jesus. 

'  1  Ej).,  c.  53.  2  Ep_  pjiii^  c.  7. 


TESTIMONY  OF  PAPIAS.  89 

translation  by  an  unknown  hand ;  and  as  the  origi- 
nal is  lost,  so  that  we  cannot  compare  with  it  the 
translation  to  test  its  correctness,  the  translation  is 
worthless  and  without  Apostolic  authority.^  In 
answer  to  this,  it  may  be  said  that  although  we  do 
not  know  who  made  the  translation,  yet  there  is  a 
strong  probability  that  it  was  made  in  Apostolic 
times  and  is  correct,  and  had  the  approval  of  Apos- 
tolic men.  The  way  Papias  speaks  of  the  original 
implies  that  it  had  been  translated  before  his  day ; 
"  every  one  translated  it,"  etc.  He  uses  the  past 
tense,  implying  thereby  that  it  was  no  longer  neces- 
sary to  translate  it.  Eveiy  early  writer  that  has 
come  down  to  us  uses  the  Greek  version  as  unques- 
tionably authentic.  Philip  Schaff  thinks  it  "  most 
probable"  that  the  translation  was  made  by  Mat- 
thew himself.''  The  original  was  probably  pre- 
served among  the  Jewish  sects  of  the  Nazarenes 
under  the  name  of  the  "  Gospel  according  to  Mat- 
thew," and  among  the  Ebionites,  in  a  mutilated 
form,  under  the  name  of  the  "  Gospel  according  to 
the  Hebrews."  Under  one  name  or  another  it 
most  likely  continued  to  exist  until  these  sects  all 


'  Supei'iiatural  Religion,  6th  edition,  p.  377. 
'  Apostolic  Church,  B.  V,  §  U. 
12 


90    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

died  out,  whicli  event  came  to  2)ass  before  the  mid- 
dle of  the  fifth  century. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  Ensebius  says,  in  the 
above  extract,  that  "  Papias,"  whose  books  he  un- 
doubtedly had  before  him  when  he  wrote,  "  made 
use  of  testimonies  from  the  First  Epistle  of  John." 
If  so,  then  we  have  quite  satisfactory  testimony 
that  the  Gospel  of  John  existed  in  the  days  of 
Papias ;  for  the  striking  similarity  of  thought 
and  style  existing  between  the  Gospel  and  Epistle 
prove  them  to  have  proceeded  from  the  same  mind. 
If  John  wrote  the  Epistle,  he  probably  wrote  the 
Gospel  also.' 


'  Westcott's  Introduction,  Appendix  D.  Norton,  Addi- 
tional Notes,  §  2.  Canon  Westcott,  in  his  Canon  of  the  New 
Testament,  cii.  4,  §  3,  in  a  note,  says:  "I  believe  the  va- 
rious forms  St.  Matthew's  Gospel  assumed  in  ancient  times 
were  as  follows:  1st.  The  original  Aramtean  text.  2d.  A 
revision  (?)  of  this  included  in  the  Peshito.  3d.  An  inter- 
polated text  used  by  the  Nazarenes,  which  contained  the 
first  two  chapters,  and  is  described  by  Jerome.  4th.  A 
mutilated  and  interpolated  text  used  by  the  Ebionites. 
5th.  An  Apostolical  translation  in  Greek. 

"^  Dr.  Sanday  says  :  "I  am  bound  in  candor  to  say  that, 
so  far  as  I  can  see  at  present,  I  am  inclined  to  agree  with 
the  author  of  Supernatural  Religion,  against  his  critics,  that 
the  works  to  which  Papias  alludes  cannot  be  our  Gospels  in 
their  present  form." — The  Gospels  of  the  Second  Century  — 
Ch.  Pajnas. 


TESTIMONY  OF  MARCION.  91 

The  next  witness  we  shall  call  is  Marcion.  He 
was  born  at  Sinope,  in  Pontus,  of  which  place  his 
father  was  bishop.  He  came  to  Rome  about  139, 
and  brought  with  him  a  collection  of  writings,  con- 
taining '•  The  Gospel,"  which  was  a  copy  of  St. 
Luke  with  numerous  variations  and  omissions  from 
the  received  text ;  and  the  ApostoUcon.  The  latter 
was  composed  of  ten  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  arranged 
in  the  following  order —  Galatians,  1  and  2  Corin- 
thians, Romans,  1  and  2  Thessalonians,  Ephesians, 
(Laodiceaus),  Colossians,  Philippians,  Philemon.^ 

This  collection  of  New  Testament  writings  is  the 
earliest  noticed  in  history,  though  probably  not  the 
earliest  in  existence,  as  such  collections  would  be 
apt  to  be  sooner  made  in  the  more  important 
churches  founded  by  one  or  more  Apostles ;  such  as 
Antioch,  Corinth,  Rome  and  others,  than  in  the 
churches  of  a  distant  province,  like  Pontus.  It  has 
been  thought  by  some  critics  that  the  Gospel  Mar- 
cion used  was  the  original  of  our  Luke.  It  has 
been  mostly  preserved  in  the  writings  of  Tertullian 
and  Epiphanius,  who,  with  Irenseus,  affirm,  that  he 
altered  our  Luke  by  leaving  out  the  account  of  the 


■  Tertullian,  Adv.  Marcion,  B.  V.   Westcott  on  the  Canon, 
p.  313.      Sujiernatural  Religion,  c.  7, 


92    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

birth  of  Jesus,  and  his  genealogy  and  other  passages, 
in  order  to  make  it  suit  his  doctrinal  views.^  For 
the  same  reason,  Tertullian  says,  he  labored  hard  to 
destroy  the  authority  of  the  other  Gospels,  which  of 
course  he  could  not  do  if  they  were  not  in  existence 
at  the  time  he  wrote,  about  1-iO.* 

From  the  writings  of  Irenseus,  Tertullian  and 
Epiphanius,  the  Gospel  used  by  Marcion  has  been  re- 
constructed with  considerable  confidence  that  we 
have  its  real  character  before  us.  It  agrees  with 
Luke's  Gospel  as  far  as  it  goes,  i.  <?.,  with  more  than 
two-thirds  of  it.  It  omits  the  two  first  chapters  of 
Luke,  and  the  third  except  the  first  verse.  It  omits 
a  few  other  texts.  The  question  among  critics  is, 
whether  the  author  of  Luke  adopted  Marcion's  Gos- 
pel as  the  basis  of  his  own  and  then  added  to  it,  or 
whether  Marcion  got  up  his  Gospel  by  catting  out  of 
Luke's  the  parts  he  did  not  like  as  charged  against 
him  by  the  writers  above  named  —  Dr.  Sanday  seems 
to  have  shown  that  the  parts  or  texts  in  Luke 
omitted  in  Marcion  are  of  the  same  style  and  dic- 
tion as  the  rest  of  Luke  which  is  accepted  by  Mar- 


'  Tertullian,  Adv.  Marcion,  B.  IV.  c.  2.      Irenmus,  B.  I,  c. 
27,  §  2.     Epiphanius'  ffivr.,    B.   XLII,  cs.  9  and  10. 
«  B.  IV,  c.  3. 


TESTIMONY  OF  BASILIDES.  93 

cion.  The  peculiarities  of  Luke's  stjle  are  found 
in  the  portions  of  the  gospel  omitted  by  Marcion.^ 
"We  come  now  to  Basilides,  of  Alexandria,  who 
according  to  Clement,  Jerome,  and  Eusebius,  flour- 
ished in  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Hadrian,  about 
117  to  138.  He  wrote  twenty-four  books  on  the 
Gospel,  all  of  which  are  lost.  Hippolytus,  in  his 
Refutation  of  all  Heresies^  quotes  from  these 
books  the  following:  "And  this  he  says,"  ^.  e. 
Basilides  says,  "  is  that  which  has  been  stated  in  the 
Gospels :  '  He  was  the  true  light  which  lighteth 
every  man  'that  cometh  into  the  world.' "  The 
language  of  the  text  as  quoted  corresponds  with 
John  c.  1 ,  V.  9.  "  The  Holy  Spirit  will  come  upon 
thee,  and  the  power  of  the  Highest  will  over-shadow 
thee."  This  language  is  found  in  Luke  1,  v.  35  ; 
changing  only  the  word  "  shall "  into  "  will." 
"  And  that  each  thing,"  says  Basilides,  "  has  its  own 
particular  time,  the  Saviour  is  sufficient  witness, 
when  He  observes,  '  mine  hour  is  not  yet  come.'  " 
This  remark  is  found  as  quoted  in  John  2,  v.  4. 
Basilides  quotes  frequently  from  St.  Paul's  Epistles, 


'  Tlie  Qonpeh  of  the  Second    Century,  hy  Dr.  W.  Sanday, 
London,  1876. 

'  B.  VII,  cs.  10,  14,  15. 


94    AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

with  which,  however,  we  have  nothing  to  do  in 
this  inquiry. 

In  speaking  of  the  growth  and  spread  of  the 
Gospel  in  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Trajan,  98--117, 
Eusebius  says : 

"  Of  those  that  flourished  in  these  times,  Quadratus 
is  said  to  have  been  distinguished  for  his  jirophetical 
gifts.  There  were  many  others,  also,  noted  in  these 
times,  who  held  the  first  rank  in  the  apostolic  suc- 
cession. These,  as  the  holy  disciples  of  such  men, 
also  built  vi\)  the  churches  where  foundations  had 
been  previously  laid  in  every  place  by  the  Apostles. 
They  augmented  the  means  of  promulgating  the 
Gospel  more  and  more,  and  spread  the  seeds  of 
salvation  and  of  the  heavenly  kingdom  through- 
out the  world  far  and  wide.  For  the  most  of 
the  disciples  at  that  time,  animated  with  a  more 
ardent  love  of  the  divine  word,  had  first  fulfilled  the 
Saviour's  precept  by  distributing  their  substance  to 
the  needy.  Afterward  leaving  their  country,  they 
performed  the  office  of  evangelists  to  those  who  had 
not  yet  heard  the  faith,  whilst  with  a  noble  ambition 
to  proclaim  Christ,  they  also  delivered  to  them  the 
books  of  the  holy  Gosi^els.  After  laying  the  founda- 
tion of  the  faith  in  foreign  parts  as  the  particular  ob- 
ject of  their  mission,  and  after  appointing  others  as 
shepherds  of  the  flocks,  and  committing  to  these  the 
care  of  those  that  had  been  recently  introduced,  they 
went  again  to  other  regions  and  nations,  with  the 
grace  and  co-operation  of   God.     Tlic  Holy  Spirit, 


TESTIMONY  OF  EUSEBIUS.  95 

also,  wrought  many  wonders  as  yet  through  them,  so 
that  as  soon  as  the  Gospel  was  heard,  men  voluntarily 
in  crowds,  and  eagerly,  embraced  the  true  faith  with 
their  whole  minds.  As  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  give 
the  numbers  of  the  individuals  that  became  pastors 
or  evangelists,  during  the  first  immediate  succession 
from  the  Apostles  in  the  churches  throughout  the 
world,  we  have  only  recorded  those  by  name  in  our 
history,  of  whom  we  have  received  the  traditional  ac- 
count as  it  is  delivered  in  the  various  comments  on 
the  apostolic  doctrine,  still  extant." 

Kow,  the  "  books  of  the  Holy  Gospels,"  which 
the  historian  mentions  in  the  above  extract,  were 
no  other  than  our  four  Gospels;  for  these  only 
were  considered  by  him,  and  the  church  generally, 
at  the  time  he  wrote,  as  genuine.  All  others  were 
considered  as  apocryphal  and  heretical.  We  have 
here  the  authority  of  Eusebius  for  saying  that  our 
Gospels  were  delivered  to  the  newly  established 
churches  by  the  evangelists  at  the  very  beginning 
of  the  second  century. 

In  reading  the  EGclesiastlcal  History  of  Euse- 
hius,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  he  had  access, 
when  writing  it,  to  many  historical  documents, 
books  and  papers,  which  have  since  been  lost ;  and 
that  his  statements  of  facts  like  the  above  may  be 
safely  believed,  although  we  know  not  the  authority 


96     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

on  which  he  makes  them.  He  was  a  very  learned 
man  and  a  diligent  collector  of  facts  and  documents 
relating  to  the  history  of  the  church,  which  he 
wrote,  from  the  days  of  the  Apostles  to  the  year 
337. 

Josephus  in  his  Antiquities  of  the  Jews,  says : 
"  Now,  there  was  about  this  time,"  i.  «.,  during  the 
procuratorship  of  Pontius  Pilate,  "  Jesus,  a  wise 
man  [if  it  be  lawful  to  call  Him  a  man,  for  He  was 
a  doer  of  wonderful  works  —  a  teacher  of  such  men 
as  receive  the  truth  with  pleasure].  He  drew  over 
to  Him  both  many  of  the  Jews  [and  many  of  the 
Gentiles.  He  was  the  Christ] ;  and  when  Pilate,  at 
the  suggestion  of  the  principal  men  amongst  us, 
had  condemned  Him  to  the  cross ;  those  that  loved 
Him  at  the  first  did  not  forsake  Him  [for  He  ap- 
peared to  them  alive  again  the  third  day ;  as  the 
divine  prophets  had  foretold  these,  and  ten  thou- 
sand other  wonderful  things  concerning  Him]. 
And  the  tribe  of  Christians,  so  named  from  Him, 
are  not  extinct  at  this  day,"  i.  e.,  at  the  time  he 
wrote,  about  100.^ 

'  B.  XVIIT,  c.  3.  Canon  Farrar  thinks  that  the  whole 
passage  above  extracted  from  Josephus  is  spurious,  particu- 
larly the  clauses  included  within  the  brackets. — Encylopce- 
dia  Britannicu,  artkle  '' Jesus.''''  Doctor  Schaff  considers 
them  genuine. —  Christian  ChircJi,  §  15.     They  are  defended, 


TESTIMONY  OF  TACITUS  AND  PLINY.    97 

Tacitus,  the  Roman  historian,  who  wrote  about 
110,  in  his  Annals,'  says  :  "  The  Emperor  Nero,  in 
order  to  stifle  the  rumor  that  he  liimself  had  set 
Rome  on  fire,  ascribed  it  to  the  Christians.  The 
author  of  this  name  was  Christ,  who  in  the  reign  of 
Tiberius  Csesar  was  brought  to  punishment  by 
Pontius  Pilate,  the  procurator."  The  historian 
gives  a  graphic  account  of  the  persecution  of  the 
Christians  at  Rome  during  the  reign  of  Nero,  in  the 
year  6-i-5,  in  Avhich  Peter  and  Paul  are  both  sup- 
posed to  have  lost  their  lives. 

Suetonius  says,  in  his  life  of  Ne]-o,''  "  he  inflicted 
punishment  on  the  Christians,  a  sort  of  people  who 
held  a  new  and  impious  superstition." 

Pliny,  proconsul  of  Bithynia,  in  an  official  com- 
munication made  to  the  Emperor  Trajan,  in  the 
year  112,  in  which  he  asks  for  directions  touching 
the  manner  of  executing  the  laws  against  the 
Christians,   says  of  them :  "  That  they   confessed, 


too,  as  genuine  in  an  able  dissertation  published  in  the  ap- 
pendix to  Josephus'  works.  The  writer  of  this  dissertation 
contends  that  Josephus  should  not  be  understood  as  assert- 
ing that  Jesus  was  the  " Christ "  or  "Messiah  "  in  the  Jew- 
ish sense  of  the  word,  but  only  that  he  was  a  man  called 
"  Christ,"  but  not  that  he  was  the  Messiah. 

'  Lib.,  XV,  c.  44.  2  c.  16. 

13 


98     AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

'  That  thej  were  wont,  on  a  stated  day,  to  meet 
together  before  it  was  light,  and  to  sing  a  hymn  to 
Christ,  as  to  a  God,  alternately,  and  to  oblige  them- 
selves by  an  oath  not  to  do  anything  that  was  ill ; 
but  that  they  would  commit  no  theft,  or  pilfering, 
or  adultery ;  that  they  would  not  break  their  prom- 
ises or  deny  what  was  deposited  with  them  when  it 
was  required  back  again.' "  He  says :  "  This 
superstition  is  spread  like  a  contagion,  not  only  into 
cities  and  towns,  but  into  country  villages,  also, 
which  yet  there  is  reason  to  hope  may  be  stopped 
and  corrected."  In  answer  to  this  epistle,  the  em- 
peror instructed  Pliny  that,  "  These  people  are  not 
to  be  sought  for ;  but  if  they  be  accused  and  con- 
victed, they  are  to  be  punished,  but  with  this  cau- 
tion, that  he  who  denies  himself  to  be  a  Christian, 
and  makes  it  plain  that  he  is  not  so  by  supplicating 
to  our  Gods,  although  he  had  been  so  formerly, 
may  be  allowed  pardon  upon  his  repentance."^ 

It  is  manifest  from  these  extracts  that  Josephus, 
Tacitus,  Suetonius  and  Pliny,  knew  something 
about  the  Christians  of  their  day ;  but  there  is  no 
evidence  that  they  knew,  or  did  not  know,  any 
thing  of  the  existence  of  our  written  Gospels. 

'  See  a  copy  of  this  correspondence  in  the  appendix  to 
the  works  of  Josephus. 


TESTIMONY  OF  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS.     99 

I  come  now  to  tlie  testimony  of  the  Apostolic 
fathers  —  Clement  of  Rome,  Ignatius,  Poljcarp, 
Barnabas  and  Hermas.  It  was  formerly  supposed 
that  all  these  writers  were  companions  of  the  Apos- 
tles ;  and  this  is  probably  true  of  Clement,  Poly- 
carp  and  Ignatius.  Good  critics  think  that  the 
Epistle  of  Barnabas  was  not  written  by  the  com- 
panion of  Paul,  but  by  some  other  person,  about 
the  years  119  to  126,  and  that  the  Pastor  of  Her- 
mas was  written  about  the  years  140  to  150.  It  is 
generally  thought  that  the  Clement  who  wrote  the 
two  epistles  to  "  The  Church  of  God  sojourning  at 
Corinth,"  is  the  same  as  the  person  of  that  name 
referred  to  by  St.  Paul,'  and  the  third  bishop  of 
the  Church  at  Rome.  Irenseus  says  of  him  :  "  This 
man,  as  he  had  seen  the  blessed  Apostles,  and  had 
been  conversant  with  them,  may  be  said  to  have 
the  preaching  of  Apostles  still  echoing  in  his  ears, 
and  their  traditions  before  his  eyes.'"  His  first  let- 
ter is  thought  to  have  been  written  about  the  year 
96  or  97.  Polycarp  was  the  first  bishop  of  Smyrna. 
Irenaeus  says  of  him  that  "he  was  instructed  by  the 
Apostles,  and  was  brought  into  contact  with  many 
who  had  seen  Christ."  '     He  wrote  an  epistle  to  the 

'  Phil,  c.  4.  3.  ^  B.  Ill,  c.  3.  3  B.  Ill,  c.  3. 


loo  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

church  at  Philippi.  He  suffered  martyrdom,  ac- 
cording to  Eusebius,  in  the  year  154-6.  The  pro- 
consul, before  whom  he  was  arraigned,  desiring  to 
save  his  life,  said  to  him :  "  Have  a  regard  for  your 
age."  "  Swear  by  the  genius  of  Csesar."  "  Swear 
and  I  will  dismiss  you."  "  Revile  Christ."  Poly- 
carp  answered:  "Eighty  and  six  years  have  I 
served  Him,  and  he  never  did  me  wrong;  and  how, 
then,  can  I  blaspheme  my  King  that  has  saved 
me  ?" '  Ignatius  was  appointed  bishop  of  the 
church  at  Antioch,  according  to  Eusebius,  about 
the  year  YO,  and  suffered  martyrdom  about  the  year 
109.  Some  fifteen  letters  are  attributed  to  him  by 
early  writers,  but  the  most  of  them  have  been 
decided  by  critics  to  be  spurious.  Three,  in  the 
ancient  Syriac  version,  edited  and  published  by 
Doctor  Cureton,  in  1845,  are  generally  believed  to 
be  genuine,  namely,  epistles  to  Polycarp,  to  the 
Ephesians  and  to  the  Romans. 

I  think  it  cannot  be  satisfactorily  shown  that  the 
Apostolic  fathers  quoted  in  their  writings  from  our 
written  Gospels.  Nor  can  it  be  shown  that  they 
did  not.  Their  writings  are  filled  with  statements 
of  the  facts  and  doctrines  of  the  Gospel.  Canon 
Westcott  says  in  regard  to  them  : 

1  E.  n.  E.,  B.  IV,  c.  15. 


TESTIMONY  OF  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS.  loi 

"The  'Gospel'  which  the  fathers  announce  in- 
cludes all  the  articles  of  the  ancient  creeds. '  Christ, 
we  read,  our  God,  the  Word,  the  Lord  and  Creator  of 
the  "World,  who  was  with  the  Father  before  time 
began,-  humbled  Himself,  and  came  down  from 
heaven,  and  was  manifested  in  the  flesh,  and  was 
born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  of  the  race  of  David  ac- 
cording to  the  flesh;  and  a  star  of  exceeding  bright- 
ness appeared  at  His  birth.*  Afterward  He  was 
baptized  by  John,  to  fulfil  all  righteousness  :  and 
then,  si3eaking  His  Fathers  message,  He  invited  not 
the  righteous,  but  sinners,  to  come  to  Him.'*  Per- 
fume was  poured  over  His  head,  an  emblem  of  the 
immortality  which  He  breathed  on  the  Church^  At 
length,  under  Herod  and  Pontius  Pilate  He  was  cru- 
cified, and  vinegar  and  gall  were  offered  Him  to  drink.* 
But  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  He  rose  from  the 


1  On  the  use  of  oral  and  written  Gospels  in  the  first  age, 
compare  Gieseler,   Ueber  die  Entstehung  u.  s.  w.  ss.  149  sqq. 

Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Gospels,  pp.  154  ff. 

^  Ign.  ad  Rom.  inscr.,  c.  iii. ;  ad  Ephes.  inscr. ;  ad  Mag- 
nes.  viii. :  Barn.  v. :  Ign.  ad  Magnes.  vi. 

^  Clem.  xvi. :  Ign.  ad  Magnes.  vii. :  Barn.  xii. :  Ign.  ad 
8myr.  i. ;  ad  Trail,  ix. ;  ad  Ephes.  xix. :  Ign.  ad  Ephes.  xx. ; 
id.  xix.  (of  especial  interest). 

*  Ign.  ad  Smyr.  i.  The  words  which  are  parallel  with  St. 
Matthew,  'iva  itXrjpooQ^  Ttdda  diHatodvvr/  vn^  avrov 
appear  to  have  been  wanting  in  the  Ebionite  Gospel: 
Hieron.  adv.  Pelag.  iii.  2.      Ad  Rom.  viii.:  Barn.  v. 

*  Eph.  xvii.  the  words  eni  ziji  uEcpuXiji  connect  the  ref- 
erence with  Matt.  xxvi.  7  (true  reading). 

*  Ign.  ad  Magnes.  xi. ;  ad  Trail,  ix. ;  ad  Smyr.  i. :  Barn, 
vii. 


I02  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

dead,  the  first-fruits  of  the  grave;  and  many  prophets 
were  raised  by  Ilim  for  whom  they  had  waited. 
After  His  resurrection  He  ate  with  His  disciples,  and 
showed  them  that  He  was  not  an  incorporeal  spirit.' 
And  He  ascended  into  heaven,  and  sat  down  on  the 
right  hand  of  the  Father,  and  thence  He  shall  come 
to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead  ' 

1  Bam.  XV.:  Iga.  ad,  Magnes.  ix. :  Clem.  xxiv.  :  Polyc. 
ii. :  Ign.  ad  Magnes.  ix. ;  ad  Smyr.  ill. 

2  Baru.  XV. :  Polyc.  ii. :  Barn.  vii. :  Polyc.  ii.  Barnabas 
{I.  c.)  appears  at  first  sight  to  place  the  Ascension  also  on  a 
Sunday ;  but  it  is  more  likely  that  he  regarded  the  Manifesta- 
tion and  Ascension  of  the  Risen  Christ  as  simply  additional 
moments  in  the  story  of  the  Resurrection. 

There  are  also  numerous  references  to  discourses   of  our 
Lord  which  are  recorded  in  the  gospels : 
Clement. 

c.   xii.  Comp.  Matt.  v.  7;  vi.  14;  vii.  2;  12,  and  par- 
allels . 

c.  xlvi.  Comp.  Matt.  xxvi.  24  and  parallels. 
Ignatius. 

ad  JSjjh.  V.     Matt,  xviii.  19. 

id.  vi.     Matt.  x.  40. 

ad  Trail,  xi.     Matt.  xv.  13. 

ad  Rom.  vii.  Cf.  John  xvi.  11. 
.  id.     Cf .  John  iv.  14 ;  vii.  38. 

id.     Cf.  John  vi.  51 . 

ad  Philad.  vii.     Cf.  John  iii.  8. 

ad  Smyrri.  vi.     Matt.  xix.  13. 

ad  Polxjc.  i.     Matt.  viii.  17. 

id.  ii.     Matt.  x.  16. 

POLTCARP. 

c.  ii.   Matt.  vii.  1;  vi.  14;  v.  7;  Luke  vi.  38,  40.    Matt. 
V.  10. 


TESTIMONY  OF  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS.  103 

Such,  iu  their  owu  words,  is  the  testimony  of  the 
earliest  Fatliers  to  the  life  of  the  Saviour.  Round 
these  facts  their  doctrines  are  grouped;  on  the  truth 
of  the  Incarnation  and  the  Passion  and  the  Resur- 
rection of  Christ  their  hopes  were  grounded.'" 

In  addition  to  these  statements  of  the  chief  facts 
of  the  Gospel,  Clement  quotes  several  sayings  as 
coming  from  Jesus.  Thus,  in  chapter  13,  he 
writes : 

"  For  thus  Jesus  spoke  :  '  Be  ye  merciful,  that  ye 
may  obtain  mercy  ;  forgive,  that  it  may  be  forgiven 
you ;  as  ye  do,  so  shall  it  be  done  unto  you  ;  as  3'e 
judge,  so   shall  ye  be  judged ;  as  ye  are  kind,  so 


c.  vii.  Matt.  vi.  13;  xxvi.  41;  Mark.  xiv.  38. 

c.  V.     Cf .  Matt.  XX.  28. 

c.  vi.     Cf.  Matt.  vL  13,  14. 
Barnabas.  ' 

c.  iv.     Matt.  xxii.  14. 

c.  V.  Matt.  ix.  13. 
These  parallels  together  with  supposed  references  to  say- 
ings of  the  Lord  not  contained  iu  the  canonical  Gospels 
are  examined  in  a  note  at  the  end  of  the  chapter:  pp.  60 
flf.  Compare  Iiitrod.  to  the  Study  of  the  Gospels,  App.  C. 
Gieaeler,   Ueber  die  Entstefiung  der  schrift.  Ecv.  ss.  147  ff. 

'  Cf.  Ign.  ad  Philad.  viii.  It  is  very  worthy  of  notice 
that  there  are  no  references  to  the  miracles  of  our  Lord  in 
the  apostolic  Fathers.  All  miracles  are  implicitly  included 
in  the  Incarnation  and  Resurrection  of  Christ.  Compare 
note  at  the  end  of  the  chapter. 


I04  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

shall  kindness  be  shown  to  you ;  with  what  meas- 
ure ye  mete,  with  the  same  it  shall  be  measured  to 
you.'  "  Again,  in  chapter  46  :  "  Remember  the 
words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  how  He  said, 
'Woe  to  that  man  by  whom  offenses  come.  It 
were  better  for  him  that  he  had  never  been  born, 
than  that  he  should  cast  a  stumbling-block  before 
one  of  my  elect ;  yea,  it  were  better  for  him  that  a 
mill-stone  should  be  hung  about  his  neck  and  he 
should  be  sunk  in  the  depths  of  the  sea,  than  that 
he  should  cast  a  stumbling-block  before  one  of  My 
little  ones.' "  So,  also,  Polycarp  writes :  •'  Being 
mindful  of  what  the  Lord  said  in  his  teaching: 
Judge  not,  that  ye  be  not  judged ;  forgive,  and  it 
shall  be  forgiven  unto  you ;  be  merciful,  that  ye 
may  obtain  mercy ;  with  what  measure  ye  mete,  it 
shall  be  measured  to  you  again ;  blessed  are  the 
poor  and  those  that  are  persecuted  for  righteous- 
ness' sake,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  God."  ^ 
'*  Beseeching  in  our  supplications  the  All-seeing 
God  '  not  to  lead  us  into  temptation,'  as  the  Lord 
has  said,  '  The  spirit  truly  is  willing,  but  the  flesh 
is  weak.'  " "  Barnabas  writes :  "  Let  us  beware  lest 
we  be  found  fulfilling  that  saying,  as  it  is  written, 
'  Many  are  called,  but  few  are  chosen.' "     Again  he 

'  C.  2.  -  C.  4. 


TESTIMONY  OF  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS.   105 

writes,  "  that  he  might  show  he  came  '  not  to  call 
the  righteous,  but  sinuers,  to  repentance.'  "  ' 

These  extracts  from  Clement,  Folycarp  and  Bar- 
nabas read  very  much  like  passages  found  in  the 
Gospels  of  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke,  yet  with 
some  considerable  variations.  But  the  short  sen- 
tence from  Barnabas,  "  Many  are  called,  but  few  are 
chosen,"  is  found  in  the  same  words  in  Matthew's 
Gospel.*  It  has,  however,  been  suggested  that  Bar- 
nabas may  have  quoted  this  short  saying  from  4th 
Ezra,  8th  and  3d,  where  it  reads,  "  There  be  many 
created,  but  few  shall  be  saved. " 

Notwithstanding  the  similarity  of  thought  and 
language  between  these  several  extracts  from  the 
different  writers  and  parallel  passages  in  our  Gos- 
pels, we  cannot  affirm  confidently  that  the  writers 
quoted  from  them,  for  the  reasons:  First.  That 
they  do  not  name  the  Gospel.  Second.  The  ex- 
tracts do  not  correspond  verbally,  except  in  one  in- 
stance, with  the  text  of  the  Gospels.  Third.  The 
writers  may  have  quoted  them  from  the  Gospel  of 
the  Hebrews,  or  some  other  apocryphal  work. 
Fourth.  They  may  have  quoted  these  sayings  of 
Jesus  from  oral  tradition. 


C.  5.  2  Ch.  20,  V.  16,  and  c.  22,  v.  14. 

14 


io6  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

In  considering  the  question  of  the  authorship  of 
our  Gospels,  we  need  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  Gos- 
pel was  preached  and  churches  were  planted  in 
Syria,  Asia  Minor,  Greece  and  Italy,  and  probably 
in  the  far  East,  and  other  countries,  by  the  Apostles 
and  their  converts,  a  considerable  time  —  probably 
between  thirty  and  forty  years  —  before  any  one  of 
our  Gospels  was  written.  We  have  no  account  that 
Jesus  himself  wrote  any  thing,  except  on  one  occa- 
sion, when  He  wrote  in  the  sand.  His  commission 
to  his  disciples  was,  not  to  write,  but  to  preach. 
Oral  teaching  was  the  custom  of  the  country  and 
the  practice  of  the  Apostles.  The  written  Gospel 
is  the  transcript  of  oral  tradition.  "  Hitherto," 
says  Canon  Westcott,^  "  all  the  evidence  which  can 
be  gathered  from  the  circumstances  of  the  early 
church  and  the  traditions  of  the  origin  of  the  Gos- 
pels, has  tended  to  establish  the  existence  of  an 
original  oral  Gospel,  definite  in  general  outline  and 
even  in  language,  which  was  committed  to  writing 
in  the  lapse  of  time,  in  various  special  shapes,  ac- 
cording to  the  typical  forms  which  it  assumed  in 
the  preaching  of  different  Apostles.  It  is  probable 
that  this  oral  Gospel  existed  from  the  first  in  Ara- 


Jntroductioii  to  the  Study  of  the  Gospels,  p.  19S. 


TESTIMONY  OF  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS.   107 

maic  and  Greek,  as  wonld  naturally  be  the  case  in  a 
country  where  the  two  languages  were  generally 
current." '  When  we  reflect  that  three  of  the 
Apostolic  fathers  lived  in  the  same  age  as  the  Apos- 
tles, and  had,  in  all  probability,  been  taught  by 
them,  and  that  the  other  two  lived  in  an  age  next 
succeeding,  and  had  been  taught  by  the  immediate 
disciples  of  Apostles,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  they  learned  from  oral  teaching  the  say- 
ings of  Jesus,  and  the  events  of  His  life  mentioned 
by  them  in  their  epistles.  Canon  Westcott  comes 
to  the  following  conclusion  on  this  subject :  '''•First. 
No  evangelical  reference  in  the  Apostolic  fathers 
can  be  referred  certainly  to  a  written  record. 
Second.  It  appears  most  probable  from  the  form  of 
the  quotations  that  they  were  derived  from  oral 
traditions." 

The  Didache  or  the  Teaching  of  the  Twelve 
Apostles^  belongs  to  an  age  approximating  very 
closely  to  that  of  the  epistles  of  the  Apostolic 
fathers.      Philotheos   Bryennios,     Metropolitan   of 


'  Dr.  Sanday  says :  "  There  was  a  certain  body  of  narra- 
tive which,  in  whatever  form  it  was  handed  down,  whether 
as  oral  or  written,  at  a  very  early  date  obtained  a  sort  of 
general  recognition,  and  seems  to  have  been,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  incorporated  in  the  evangelical  works  as  they  ap- 
peared.—  The  Gospels  of  the  Second  Century,  p.  100. 


io8  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

Nicomedia,  Diocletian's  ancient  capital,  discovered 
this  work  in  1873,  while  looking  over  the  manu- 
scripts in  the  Jerusalem  Monastery  at  Constanti- 
nople. It  was  found  near  the  middle  of  a  small 
thick  book,  covered  with  black  leather,  and  bound 
up  with  other  works,  namely,  first  ChrysostonC s 
Synopsis  of  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments ;  then  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas ;  then  the  Epis- 
tles of  Clement ;  then  the  teaching  of  the  Twelve 
Ajjostles ;  then  the  Epistle  of  Mary  of  Cassobelae 
to  Ignatius ;  followed  by  Twelve  Epistles  of  Igna- 
tius. This  collection  of  manuscripts  is  numbered 
in  the  library  456.  The  Teaching  of  the  Twelve 
Apostles  occupies  leaves  76-80  of  the  manuscript, 
and  contains  about  as  much  matter  as  Paul's  epistle 
to  the  Galatians.  The  manuscript  is  written  on 
parchment,  in  Greek  cursive  characters,  and  is  dated 
A.  D.  1056. 

The  "  Teaching "  was  published  with  an  intro- 
duction and  copious  notes  by  Bishop  Bryennios,  at 
Constantinople,  in  1883.  The  publication  at  once 
attracted  the  attention  of  learned  men  in  Germany, 
England  and  the  United  States.  The  manuscript 
was  and  is  very  generally  believed  by  them  to  be 
genuine  and  the  work  to  have  been  originally  com- 
posed  in   the  first  half   of    the   second    century. 


TEACHING  OF  THE  APOSTLES.  109 

Doctors  Adolf  Harnack,  August  Wiinsche  and 
Theodore  Zalm,  each  published  in  1884  the  Greek 
text  with  a  translation  into  German,  accompanied 
by  extensive  foot  notes.  Harnack  thinks  it  was 
composed  not  before  120  and  probably  not  before 
140.  Bryennios  himself  fixes  the  date  between  120 
and  140.  Canon  Farrar  translated  it  into  English 
for  the  May  number  of  the  Contemporary  Review 
for  1884.  Messrs.  Hitchcock  and  Brown,  professors 
in  the  Union  Theological  Seminary,  Kew  York, 
published  the  Greek  text  and  a  translation  in  1884 
and  a  second  edition  in  1885,  with  a  valuable  intro- 
duction and  notes.  They  think  it  was  composed 
between  120  and  160.  On  the  31st  of  January, 
1885,  the  Rev.  Charles  R.  Hale,  one  of  the  ministers 
in  St.  Paul's  church  in  Baltimore,  took  a  photo- 
graph copy  of  three  pages  of  the  manuscript  in  the 
Jerusalem  library  at  Constantinople.  The  John 
Hopkins  university  has  reproduced  by  photograph 
these  pages  and  published  a  few  copies  of  them. 

The  Teaching  of  the  Tioelve  Apostles  is  an 
interesting  work,  not  because  it  teaches  any  doc- 
trine or  rite  not  taught  in  the  New  Testament 
Scriptures,  but  because  it  is  one  of  the  links  in  the 
chain,  together  with  the  epistles  of  the  so-called 
Apostolic  fathers,  to  connect  these  scriptures  with 


no  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

the  later  writings  of  Justin  Martyr,  Irenssus, 
Clement,  and  Tertullian  and  otlier  Christian  fa- 
thers. 

As  to  the  contents  of  this  work,  it  contains  a 
summary  of  the  practical  duties  of  life  as  consisting 
of  love  to  God  and  to  our  neighbors,  and  points  out 
the  "two  ways  "  — one  of  life,  the  other  of  death. 
It  gives  instruction  in  regard  to  baptism  which 
must  be  by  the  use  of  water  in  the  name  of  the 
Trinity ;  in  regard  to  the  Eucharist,  or  Lord's 
supper,  which  must  be  celebrated  by  partaking  of 
the  broken  bread  and  of  the  wine,  accompanied  by 
prayers  and  thanksgiving.  It  also  gives  directions 
in  regard  to  the  conduct  and  support  of  the  clergy, 
and  in  regard  to  the  second  coming  of  Christ  to 
judge  the  world.' 

After  this  account  of  the  finding,  age  and  con- 
tents of  the  Teaching  of  the  Apostles,  the  ques- 
tion we  have  now  to  consider  is,  does  this  work  fur- 
nish any  evidence  that  the  author  knew  or  used  our 
Gospels  ?  It  furnishes  abundant  evidence  that  he, 
like  the  Apostolic  fathers,  knew  the  Gospel ;  but 
did  he  know  our  written  canonical  Gospels  ?     It 


*  See  Edward  A.  Grosvenor's  accouut  of  the  finding  of 
the  "Teaching,''  and  Phillip  Schaff's  review  of  it  in  the 
May  number  of  the  Century  Magazine  for  1885. 


TEACHING  OF  THE  APOSTLES.  iii 

furnishes  no  evidence  that  he  did  not  know  them, 
unless  the  fact  that  he  does  not  name  tliem  nor 
unmistakably  refer  to  them  can  be  fairly  inter- 
preted into  evidence  of  his  ignorance  of  them. 
But  we  cannot  fairly  make  this  interpretation 
unless  we  can  show  that  he  had  occasion  to 
name  or  refer  to  them  and  yet  did  not.  Many 
writers  do  not  mention  in  their  writings  the  Can- 
terbury Tales.,  Paradise  Lost.,  and  other  works 
well  known  to  them,  nor  refer  to  them  simply  be- 
cause they  have  no  occasion  to  do  so.  Whether 
the  author  quoted  from  our  Gospels  or  not,  is  a 
little  uncertain  from  the  fact  that  he  does  not  name 
them,  and  passages  that  may  have  been  quoted, 
almost  or  quite  literally  from  our  Gospels,  may  also 
have  been  quoted  from  the  traditional  oral  Gospel 
then  in  existence.  The  same  difficulty  of  deter- 
mining the  particular  source  whence  the  author  de- 
rived a  knowledge  of  any  sayiug  of  Jesus,  or  any 
event  in  his  life  mentioned  by  him,  exists  in  the 
case  of  the  "  Teaching  "  as  in  the  case  of  the  epistles 
of  the  Apostolic  fathers.  The  "  Teaching  "  contains 
the  Lord's  Prayer  in  very  nearly  the  same  language 
as  it  is  found  in  Luke's  Gospel,  adding,  however,  at 
the  conclusion,  "•  for  thine  is  the  power  and  the  glory 
forever."     But  this  prayer  the  author  may  have 


112  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

quoted  from  memory  as  he  bad  learned  it  from  oral 
teaching.  He  quotes  also,  as  a  saying  of  our  Lord, 
"  give  not  that  which  is  holy  to  the  dogs,"  and  ap- 
plies it  to  unbaptized  persons  by  way  of  prohibit- 
ing them  from  partaking  of  the  Lord's  supper.  The 
saying  is  found  in  the  same  words  in  Matthew  vii,  6. 
His  work  contains  many  sayings  which  correspond 
almost  literally  with  similar  sayings  found  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Such  as  "  Bless  them  that 
curse  you,"  "  if  any  one  give  thee  a  blow  on  the 
right  cheek  turn  to  him  the  other  also,"  "  if  any 
one  take  thy  cloak,  give  him  thy  tunic  also,"  and 
many  other  similar  passages. 

I  come  now  to  the  Gospels  themselves.  There  is 
some  internal  evidence  that  the  Synoptic  Gospels, 
Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke,  were  severally  written 
before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  under  the 
Roman  General  Titus  in  the  year  70  ;  for  each  of 
these  Gospels  contains  a  prophecy  by  Jesus  of  that 
coming  event.^  If  it  should  be  said,  that  the  proph- 
ecy  was  written  after  the  event  took  place,  I  an- 
swer: this  is  not  likely,  for  if  this  were  so,  the 
writers  would  have  been  apt,  in  honor  of  their  mas- 
ter,  to  record  its  fulfilhnent.     But  neither  writer 


'  Matt.,  24.     Marie,  13.     Luke,  21. 


TESTIMONY  OF  THE  GOSPELS.  113 

does  so.  There  is  uotliing  in  either  one  of  these 
Gospels  tending  to  show  that  Jerusalem  was  not 
standing  and  in  a  flourishing  condition  at  the  time  it 
was  written. 

15 


114  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 


CHAPTEH  III. 

A  BRIEF  ARGUMENT. 


The  testimonies  of  Origen,  Tertiillian,  Clement, 
IrenEeus,  the  canon  of  Muratori,  and  the  Syriac  and 
Latin  versions  of  the  New  Testament,  all  concur  in 
proving  that  in  the  latter  part  of  tlie  second  century 
our  Gospels  existed  and  were  read  as  sacred  books 
by  many  thousands  of  Christians,  living  in  Europe, 
Asia  and  Africa.  Judging  from  these  facts  alone  it 
might  be  reasonably  presumed  that  they  had  a  much 
earlier  origin.  They  could  not  have  sprung  into 
snch  universal  use  all  at  once.  This  presumption, 
by  itself,  and  without  any  additional  evidence,  ought 
to  be  considered  as  entirely  convincing,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  any  proof  to  the  contrary.  Bnt  in  addi- 
tion to  this,  the  witnesses  prove  that  the  Christians 
of  that  day  had  a  tradition  among  them,  stating  that 
these  Gospels  had  been  written,  respectively,  by 
Matthew  the  publican,  Mark  the  interpreter  of 
Peter,  Luke  the  physician,  and  John  the  beloved 
disciple,  and  that  they  had  been  handed  down  to 
them  from  the  days  of  the  Apostles.     There  is  no 


A  BRIEF  ARGUMENT.  115 

evidence  that  either  Christians,  pagans  or  heretics, 
had  any  account  of  any  other  origin.  These  facts 
are  not  only  proved,  but,  I  believe,  are  admitted  to 
be  true  by  all  critics.  Now,  what  are  the  just  infer- 
ences to  be  drawn  from  these  facts  ?  Plainly,  1st, 
that  the  tradition  is  true,  and,  2d,  that  the  Gospels 
were  written  by  the  persons  named.  "What  other 
inference  different  from  these  can  possibly  be  drawn? 
"We  believe  that  Homer  wrote  the  Iliad ;  Yirgil, 
the  ^neid  I  Tacitus,  the  Annals ,'  Milton,  Para- 
dise Lost  I  and  Shakspeare,  the  plays  of  Othello 
and  Macbeth,  on  evidence  much  less  convincing 
than  these  facts  furnish  to  prove  the  genuineness  of 
the  Gospels. 

If  a  conclusion,  so  conclusive  as  this  seems  to  be, 
can  be  confirmed,  it  is  confirmed  by  the  further 
facts  that  the  churches  —  corporate  bodies  having  an 
uninterrupted  succession  of  officers  and  members 
from  the  days  of  the  Apostles  down  —  were  the 
keepers  of  the  Gospels  and  other  sacred  Scriptures. 
The  bishops,  and  other  officers,  handed  these  writ- 
ings down  to  their  successors  in  office,  and  these,  to 
their  successors,  and  so  on.  No  other  ancient  books, 
except  the  other  sacred  Scriptures,  ever  had  such 
trustworthy  custodians,  nor  such  credible  witnesses 
to  their  genuineness,  as   our  Gospels.     It  is  also 


Ii6  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

strengthened  by  the  further  facts  that  Justin  Martyr, 
about  the  year  150,  made  use  of  the  Memoirs  of 
the  Apostles,  called  Gospels,  "which  were  com- 
posed by  the  Apostles  and  their  companions,"  and 
which,  we  think,  were  our  Gospels  —  that  Paj)ias, 
writing  about  the  year  140,  referred  to  Logia  by 
Matthew,  and  a  Gospel  by  Mark,  eo  nomine,  and 
testified  to  what  presbyter  John,  a  contemporary  of 
the  Apostles,  told  him  about  their  origin  —  that 
Marcion  used  our  Gospel  according  to  Luke,  in  tlie 
year  140,  as  affirmed  by  Irenaeus  and  Tertullian,  but 
denied  by  some  critics  and  asserted  by  others  —  that 
Basilides,  writing  between  the  years  117  and  138, 
quotes  texts  that  correspond  with  texts  found  in 
,'  Luke's  and  John's  Gospels  —  and,  that  Barnabas, 
■  Clement,  Polycarp  and  Ignatius,  between  the  years 
I  98  and  119,  all  quote  many  sentences  very  much  re- 
sembling passages  found  in  our  Gospels,  and  which 
may  have  been  taken  from  them,  but  without  nam- 
ing the  writer,  and  that  Eusebius  says  that  the  evan- 
gelists delivered  to  their  converts  the  books  of  the 
holy  Gospels  in  the  reign  of  Trajan,  98-117. 

In  answer  to  the  conclusion  herein  arrived  at  — 
that  the  Gospels  were  written  by  the  persons  whose 
names  they  bear  in  Apostolic  times  —  it  has  been 
argued  that  this  cannot  be,  for  the  reason  that  there 


A  BRIEF  ARG  UMENT.  1 1 7 

is  no  evidence  that  they  are  named  or  referred  to  by 
any  writer,  Christian  or  pagan,  who  wrote  before 
the  last  half  of  the  second  century.  The  author  of 
Sujjernatural  Religion  says:  "After  having  ex- 
hausted the  literature  and  testimony  bearing  on  the 
point,  we  have  not  found  a  single  distinct  trace  of 
any  one  of  these  Gospels  during  the  first  century 
and  a  half  after  the  death  of  Jesus."^  Therefore, 
it  is  argued,  they  did  not  exist  during  that  time. 

"We  think  the  ergo  is  a  non  sequitur.  Besides, 
we  have  pointed  out,  as  we  believe,  several  "  distinct 
traces  "  of  our  Gospels  in  writers  who  wrote  "  dur- 
ing the  first  century  and  a  half  after  the  death  of 
Jesus."  But  let  us  suppose  we  are  mistaken,  and 
that  no  such  "traces"  exist.  It  will  not  follow 
from  this  negative  fact  that  our  Gospels  did  not 
exist ;  for  it  may  well  be  that  no  author  wrote  dur- 
ing the  time  specified,  whose  subject  required  him 
to  name  or  refer  to  them,  or,  if  such  author  did 
write,  and  did  name  the  Gospels -or  quote  from  them, 
his  writings  may  be  lost.  Excepting  the  New  Tes- 
tament Scriptures  and  a  few  Epistles  written  by 
Barnabas,  Clement,  Polycarp,  Ignatius  and  Hermas, 
and  excepting  the  Teaching  of  the  Apostles,  all  of 
which  we  have  already  noticed,  there  are  no  writ- 

'  6th  edition,  p.  547 


ii8  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

ings,  still  extant^  which  treat  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, older  than  the  writings  of  Justin  Martyr,  who 
wrote  about  the  year  150.  Before  his  day,  accord- 
ing to  Eusebius,  Quadratus  and  Aristides,  about  tlie 
year  126,  wrote  Apologies  /  Basilides  wrote  a  com- 
mentary on  the  Gospel  in  twenty-four  books,  about 
the  year  125  ;  Agrippa  Castor,  about  the  year  130, 
wrote  a  Refutation  of  the  Heresies  of  Basilides  / 
and  Marcion,  about  the  year  140,  wrote  a  book  con- 
cerning the  law  and  the  Gospel  called  Antitheses  / 
Hegessippus,  a  contemporary  of  Justin  Martyr  at  a 
later  period,  probably  between  177  and  193,  wrote 
what  Eusebius  calls,  "  the  plain  tradition  of  the  apos- 
tolic doctrine,"  in  five  books.  In  another  place  he 
calls  them  "  five  books  of  commentaries.' '  We  know 
nothing  of  the  character  of  this  work,  except  what 
Eusebius  says  of  it,  and  what  can  be  learned  from  a 
few  extracts  preserved  by  him.  Mr.  Waite  claims, 
that  it  was  a  "  history  of  the  church  from  the  be- 
ginning to  his  own  time."  But  Eusebius  does  not  so 
speak  of  it.  He  says  that  "  Hegessippus  compiled 
in  five  books  the  plain  tradition  of  the  apostolic 
doctrine,  in  a  most  simple  style  of  composition,'' 
It  is  most  likely  that  it  was  a  general  commentary 
on  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel.  Whatever  the 
Avork  was,   this,  and  all  the  others  we  have  just 


A  BRIEF  ARGUMENT.  119 

named,  have  perished.  We  do  not  know  whether 
or  not  any  of  the  writers  quoted  or  referred  to  our 
Gospels. 

It  has  been  argued  that  because  Eusebius  does 
not  state  in  his  history  that  these  and  other  writers 
before  the  time  of  Ire n sens  did  name  or  refer  to 
our  Gospels,  therefore  it  may  be  certainly  concluded 
that  they  did  not.  But  this  conclusion  does  not 
justly  follow.  They  may  have  referred  to  them, 
both  by  name  and  by  quotations,  and  yet  Eusebius 
may  not  have  felt  it  necessary  to  mention  the  fact. 
He  was  not  writing  a  history  of  the  Gospels  nor  of 
the  New  Testament  Scriptures,  though  he  gives  a 
catalogue  of  them  as  they  existed  in  his  day.  If 
the  authorship  or  canonicity  of  any  one  of  the  Gos- 
pels had  been  in  dispute  at  the  time  he  wrote,  he 
would  have  been  likely  in  that  case  to  record  in  his 
work  whatever  evidence  he  met  with  in  these  older 
writings,  proving  the  existence  of  such  disputed 
Gospel,  in  order  to  throw  light  upon  the  question 
of  its  authorship  or  canonicity.  He  himself  says : 
"  As  I  proceed  in  my  history  I  shall  carefully  show 
what  ecclesiastical  writers  in  their  times  respect- 
ively made  use  of  any  of  the  disputed  writings."  * 

'  B.  m,  c.  3. 


I20  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

But  the  authorship  and  canonicity  of  the  four  Gos- 
pels were  not  in  dispute  at  the  time  he  wrote,  but 
were  as  much  fixed  and  determined  as  they  are 
to-day.  No  particular  reason  can  be  given  why  he 
should  have  noticed  them,  or  either  of  them,  in 
writing  his  history.  No  inference,  therefore,  un- 
favorable to  the  early  existence  of  the  Gospels,  can 
be  drawn  from  his  silence  in  regard  to  them  when 
referring  to  older  writers.  The  argumentuin  ex 
silentia  is  of  no  weight  in  this  case. 

But  suppose  it  should  be  admitted  that  no  writer 
between  the  day  of  the  crucifixion  and  the  time  of 
Irenseus,  a  period  of  150  years,  referred  to  our  Gos- 
pels at  all,  either  by  name  or  otherwise ;  this  fact 
would  not  prove  their  non-existence.    The  omission 
/  to  name  them  in  their  writings  certainly  would  not, 
'  any  more  than   the  omission   of   Doctor   Edward 
Bouverie  Pusey  to  name  them,  except  in  quoting 
his    texts,  in  thirty-one   sermons  written  by  him, 
proves   that   they   did  not   exist   at    the   time   he 
wrote   the  sermons.     It   may  not   have   been   the 
fashion  of  the  day  for  writers  to  cite  their  authori- 
ties by  name.     The  omission  to  quote  from  them 
would  not  prove  their  non-existence,  for  the  sub- 
I  ject-matter  of  their  books  might  not  call  for  any 
/  quotations  from  them.     Besides,  in  the  earliest  days 


A  BRIEF  AR  Q  UMENT.  1 2 1 

of  Christianity  the  Gospel  was  propagated  every- 
where by  oral  teaching  —  by  preaching  —  not  by 
writing.  The  historic  facts  of  Christ's  life,  death, 
resurrection  and  ascension,  and  the  doctrines  of 
faith  growing  oat  of  these,  were  first  orally  taught 
to  the  people  by  the  Apostles  and  their  successors. 
Many  churches  were  founded  and  established  a 
considerable  time  before  the  Gospels  were  written. 
This  oral  Gospel  was  handed  down  to  succeeding 
generations,  and  was  well  understood  by  Christians 
of  the  first  and  second  centuries.  Writers  mio^ht 
easily  quote  from  it  and  comment  on  its  doctrines 
without  feeling  any  necessity  to  refer  to  the  writ- 
ten Gospels  by  name  or  otherwise,  though  they 
might  have  had  them  in  their  possession.  Irenteus 
notices  how  the  faith  of  the  Gospel  was  propagated 
in  his  day  among  the  barbarians  of  many  nations 
"without  paper  or  ink  or  written  documents,  by 
teaching  to  them  the  traditions  of  the  Apostles."  ' 
And  yet  it  is  not  denied  that  the  written  Gospels 
existed  and  were  in  common  use  in  the  days  of 
Irenseus. 

In    all  probability  the  oral   traditionary  Gospel 
and  the  written  Gospels  existed  together,  side  by 

>  B.  Ill,  c.  4,  §  3. 
16 


]22  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

side,  in  the  first  years  of  Christianity.  "  We  have 
learned  from  none  others,"  says  Irenaeus,  "  the  plan 
of  our  salvation,  than  from  those  through  whom 
the  Gospel  has  come  down  to  us,  which  they  did  at 
one  time  proclaim  in  public,  and,  at  a  later  period, 
by  the  will  of  God,  handed  down  to  us  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, to  be  the  ground  and  pillar  of  onr  faith. "^ 
As  time  rolled  on,  the  written  Gospels,  being  in 
entire  harmony  with  the  oral  traditions,  and  being 
believed  to  be  written  by  Apostles  and  their  com- 
panions, came  to  be  considered  as  the  sole  authentic 
evidence  of  the  traditions  of  the  Gospel  history. 

If  we  assume  that  the  Gospels  were  written  in  tlie 
Apostolic  age  by  the  persons  whose  names  they  bear, 
then  there  is  no  difficulty  in  accounting  for  their 
general  reception  among  the  early  Christians  as 
sacred  books ;  nor  for  the  tradition  of  their  Apos- 
tolic origin.  The  writer  of  any  one  of  them,  having 
finished  his  work,  would  naturally  deliver  the 
manuscript  to  the  bishop  of  some  leading  church, 
such  as  the  church  at  Jerusalem,  or  at  Antioch,  or 
Ephesus,  or  Alexandria,  or  Rome,  and  it  would  be 
deposited  in  the  church  for  the  purpose  of  being 
read  to  the  people  and  for  safe  keeping.  Copies, 
made  by  an  authorized  scribe,  would  be  given  out 

'  B.  Ill,  c.  1,  §  1. 


A  BRIEF  ARGUMENT.  123 

to  other  churches  or  to  individuals,  accompanied 
by  the  declaration  that  it  was  the  Gospel  of 
Matthew,  or  Mark,  or  Luke,  or  John,  as  the  case 
might  be.  Not  at  first,  but  after  a  time,  the  name 
of  the  writer  would  come  to  be  inscribed  on  the  lit- 
tle book.  Copies  would  soon  come  to  be  made  from 
copies  as  well  as  from  the  original.  And  so  the 
writings  would  be  readily  multiplied  and  circulated 
among  Christians  everywhere,  each  copy  always 
accompanied  by  the  traditionary  account  of  its 
authorship.  And  so  of  the  other  canonical  Gospels. 
Besides  these,  there  existed  at  a  very  early  day 
other  writings,  or  fragments  of  Gospels,  in  circula- 
tion, as  we  have  already  seen ;  but  these  four  only 
soon  came  to  be  considered  as  solely  authentic  and 
canonical ;  because  these  alone  were  known  to  have 
had  Apostles  and  companions  of  Apostles  for  their 
authors. 

Now,  if,  on  the  other  hand,  we  suppose  the  Gos- 
pels were  not  written  before  the  end  of  the  Apos- 
tolic age,  how  can  we,  in  this  case,  account  for  their 
general  reception  and  use  among  Christians  ?  No 
Apostle  would  be  living  at  the  time  they  appeared 
who  could  vouch  for  their  genuineness  or  historic 
accuracy.  Older  accounts  of  Jesus  and  his  doc- 
trines, either  in  a  written  form  or  in  the  form  of 


124  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

oral  tradition  would  be  existing  among  Christians. 
If  the  recently  written  Gospels  offered  to  their  ac- 
ceptance differed  from  these,  they  would  have  been 
rejected  on  account  of  such  difference.  The 
Christians  would  have  preferred  the  old  accounts  to 
the  new.  If  the  old  and  new  accounts  agreed,  the 
recently  written  Gospels  would  have  been  but  a 
new  edition  of  the  old.  If  the  Gospels  made  their 
first  appearance  under  a  claim  of  being  ancient  or 
of  Apostolic  origin  when  they  were  not,  Christians 
would  have  answered  :  "  Your  claim  is  false.  We 
know  you  not.  We  have  never  heard  our  fathers, 
nor  our  grandfathers,  nor  our  aged  bishops,  speak 
of  you."  If  they  originated  as  late  as  the  last  half 
of  the  second  century,  then,  in  addition  to  these 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  their  reception,  they  would 
have  had  to  encounter,  in  hostile  opposition,  Jus- 
tin's Memoirs  which  were  before  this  time,  as  we 
have  seen,  in  possession  of  the  field. 

In  addition  to  these  objections  to  the  theory  of  a 
late  origin  of  the  Gospels,  there  stands  the  tradition 
of  their  Apostolic  origin  —  a  tradition  proved,  be- 
yond all  question,  to  have  existed  from  very  early 
times.  How  could  this  tradition  have  originated 
and  been  believed,  if  in  point  of  fact  it  was  not 
true  ?     Its  truth  or  falsity  could  have  been  easily 


A  BRIEF  ARGUMENT.  125 

proved  in  that  day,  by  inquiring  of  the  aged  men 
then  living,  whose  gandfathers  —  or,  at  the  farthest 
remove  —  great  grandfathers,  were  companions  of 
the  Apostles.     \_See  Aj>_pendix  C] 


i26  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

CHAPTEE  lY. 

UNCORRUPTED  TEXT. 


It  remains  now  to  consider,  very  briefly,  tlie  ques- 
tion whether  or  not  the  Gospels  have  been  handed 
down  to  us  in  an  uncorrupted  state,  i.  <?.,  without 
material  alterations  or  interpolations. 

The  original  autograph  Gospels  were  probably 
written  upon  papyrus,  as  most  books  were  in  that 
day.  This  material  was  a  kind  of  paper  made  from 
the  fibre  of  a  species  of  reed  that  grew  plentifully 
on  the  banks  of  the  Nile.  It  was  more  brittle  and 
less  durable  than  our  paper.  A  few  specimens 
taken  from  the  ruins  of  Herculaneum,  and  from 
the  bodies  of  mummies,  have  been  preserved  to  the 
present  day.  The  original  manuscripts  undoubtedly 
became  lost  or  destroyed  by  accident,  or  by  the  rav- 
ages of  time,  or  perhaps  by  the  order  of  persecuting 
rulers,  within  the  first  two  centuries.  Nor  is  it  proba- 
ble that  we  have  at  the  present  day  any  copy  taken 
immediately  from  the  original ;  we  have  only  copies 
of  copies.  Of  these,  it  is  said  that  more  than  six 
hundred  manuscript  copies  in  the  Greek  language 


UNCORRUPTED  TEXT.  127 

are  still  to  be  found  in  the  public  and  private  libra- 
ries of  Europe.  They  are  all  older  than  1455. 
Since  that  time  the  Gospels  have  been  multiplied  by 
printing,  and  few  or  no  manuscript  copies  have 
been  made. 

Written  copies  of  the  Greek  Scriptures  including 
those  of  the  Septuagint  translation  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment far  exceed  in  age  and  number  those  of  all  the 
classical  writings  of  antiquity  put  together.'  Tisch- 
endorf  catalogues  about  500  manuscript  copies  of 
the  Gospels,  200  of  the  Acts  and  Catholic  Epistles, 
and  a  little  less  than  100  of  the  Apocalypse.  The 
Rev.  F.  H.  Scrivener  enumerates  34  manuscript 
gospels  in  uncial  characters,  601  in  cursive  charac- 
ters, 14  Paul's  Epistles  in  uncials  and  283  in  curs- 
ives.^ Dr.  Kennicott  collated  about  630  Hebrew 
manuscripts  for  his  critical  edition  of  the  Hebrew 
Bible.'  The  oldest  extant  copies  of  formal  works 
exhibit  the  whole  text  in  uncial  or  capital  letters, 
without   spaces  between    the   words,  and   without 


'  F.  H.  Scrivener's  Six  Lectures  on  the  Text  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament and  Ancient  Manuseri2its,  1875.  The  various  versions 
of  the  Bible,  by  Constantine  Tischendorf. 

"^  Collection  of  about  twenty  manuscripts  of  the  Holy 
Gospels,  by  Rev.  F.  H.  Scrivener,  Cambridge,  1853.  J/c- 
Clintock  and  Strong'' s  Cycloimdia,  article  Manuscripts. 

'  Home's  Introduction,  pt.  I,  c.  3,  §  7. 


128  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

punctuation.  The  uncial  calligraphy  gave  way  to 
the  cursive  or  small  runnino;  hand  about  the  beorinn- 
ing  of  the  tenth  century.  Hence,  if  a  manuscript 
is  written  in  cursive  letters,  it  is  at  once  known  to 
be  of  comparatively  late  date.' 

The  three  oldest  and  therefore  most  authoritative 
copies  of  tlie  Gospels  in  existence  are,  1st,  the  Gos- 
pels contained  in  the  manuscript  Bible  preserved  in 
the  Vatican  library  at  Rome.  This  Bible  is  com- 
prised in  a  single  quarto  volume  containing  759 
thin  delicate  vellum  leaves.  It  includes  the  Septua- 
gint  translation  of  the  Old  Testament  written  in  six 
columns,  on  a  single  side  of  the  leaf,  in  uncial  let- 
ters. Critics  place  its  date  no  later  than  the  first 
half  of  the  fourth  century. 

2d.  The  Codex  Sinaiticus  consists  of  more  that 
300  large  leaves  of  the  finest  vellum  made  from  the 
skins  of  young  antelopes.  It  contains  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,  written  in  four  columns  on  every 
page  and  eight  on  the  open  leaves,  in  Greek  uncial 
letters.  This  manuscript  was  obtained  from  tlie 
convent  of  St.  Catharine,  on  Mount  Sinai,  by  Con- 
stantino Tischendorf  in  1844  and  1859,  for  the  em- 
peror of  Russia,     It  belongs  to  the  middle  of  the 


8crivener''s  Six  Lectures,  p.  20,  and  p.  33. 


UNCORRUPTED  TEXT.  129 

fourth  century,  according  to  Tischendorf  and  other 
critics.  The  New  Testament  is  perfect,  not  having 
been  deprived  of  a  single  leaf.^ 

Fac  similes  of  both  these  manuscripts  may  be 
seen  in  the  Astor  Library  in  New  York. 

3d.  The  Codex  Alexandrinus,  containing  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments  in  Greek,  in  uncial  letters.  It 
was  given  to  Charles  1st  of  England,  by  Cyril,  pat- 
riarch of  Constantinople.  It  is  kept  in  the  British 
Museum.  Critics  place  the  date  not  earlier  than  the 
latter  half  of  the  fourth  century. 

Numerous  errors  in  copying  have  undoubtedly 
crept  into  the  text  of  different  manuscripts,  produc- 
ing in  this  manner  many  various  readings,  which 
it  is  the  business  of  scholars  and  critics  to  discover 
and  point  out ;  yet  we  have  stronger  evidence,  we 
think,  to  believe  that  copies  of  the  Gospels  have 
been  preserved  and  handed  down  to  us,  containing 
fewer  errors  and  conforming  more  essentially  and 
completely  to  the  original  exemplars  than  any  other 
ancient  writings  whatever.  That  the  original  text 
of  our  Gospels  has  been  handed  down  to  us  with 


*  See  a  translation  of  Tischendorf's  own  account  of  \iis 
obtaining  this  manuscript  for  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  pub- 
lished, by  the  Religious  Tract  Society  of  London,  and  by 
the  American  Tract  Society. 

17 


I30  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

but  few  errors  or  interpolations  of  copyists,  is  well 
proved  by  Mr.  Norton  in  his  Genuineness  of  the 
Gospels}     He  says : 

**  We  proceed,  then,  to  the  proof  that  the  Gospels 
have  not  been  exposed  to  any  peculiar  causes  of  cor- 
ruption, but  remain  essentially  the  same  as  they  were 
originally  composed. 

This  appears,  in  the  first  place,  from  the  agree- 
ment among  our  present  manuscript  copies  of  the 
Gospels,  or  of  parts  of  the  Gospels,  in  whatever  form 
these  copies  appear.  There  have  been  examined,  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  about  six  hundred  and  seventy 
manuscripts^  of  the  whole,  or  of  portions,  of  the 
Greek  text  of  the  Gospels.  These  were  written  in 
different  countries,  and  at  different  periods,  jirobably 
from  the  fifth  century  donwards.  They  have  been 
found  in  places  widely  remote  from  each  other,  —  in 
Asia,  in  Africa,  and  from  one  extremity  of  Europe  to 
the  other.  Besides  these  manuscripts  of  the  Greek 
text,  there  are  many  manuscripts  of  ancient  versions 
of  the  Gospels,  in  different  languages  of  each  of  the 
three  great  divisions  of  the  world  just  mentioned.- 
There  are  likewise  many  manuscripts  of  the  works  of 
the  Christian  fathers,  abounding  in  quotations  from 
the  Gospels ;  and  especially  manuscripts  of  ancient 
commentaries  on  the  Gospels,  such  as  those  of  Origen, 
who  lived  in  the  third  century,  and  of  Chrysostom, 
who  lived  in  the  fourth,  —  in  which  we  find  their  text 


'  Pt.  I,  c.  1. 

"^  See  Scholz's  Catalogue,  in  the  Prolegomena  to  his  N.  T. 


UNCORK  UP  TED   TEXT.  131 

quoted,  as  the  different  portions  of  it  are  successively 
the  subjects  of  remark. 

Now,  all  these  different  copies  of  the  Gospels,  or 
parts  of  the  Gospels,  —  so  numerous,  so  various  in 
their  character,  so  unconnected,  offering  themselves 
to  notice  in  parts  of  the  world  so  remote  from  each 
other,  —  concur  in  giving  us  essentially  the  same  text. 
Divide  them  into  four  classes,  corresponding  to  the 
four  Gospels,  and  it  is  evident  that  those  of  each  class 
are  to  be  referred  to  one  common  source  ;  that  they 
are  all  copies,  more  or  less  remote,  of  the  same 
original  ;  that  they  all  had  one  common  text  for  their 
archetype.  They  vary,  indeed,  more  or  less  from 
each  other  ;  but  their  variations  have  arisen  from  the 
common  accidents  of  transcrijition  ;  or,  as  regards  the 
versions,  partly  from  errors  of  translation  ;  or,  in  re- 
spect to  the  quotations  by  the  fathers,  partly  from 
the  circumstance,  that,  in  ancient  as  in  modern  times, 
the  language  of  Scripture  was  often  cited  loosely, 
from  memory,  and  without  regard  to  verbal  accuracy, 
in  cases  where  no  particular  verbal  accuracy  was  re- 
quired. The  agreement  among  the  extant  copies  of 
any  one  of  the  Gospels,  or  of  portions  of  it,  is  essen- 
tial ;  the  disagreements  are  accidental  and  trifling, 
originating  in  causes  which,  from  the  nature  of  things, 
Ave  know  must  have  been  in  operation.  The  same 
work  everywhere  appears  ;  and,  by  comparing  together 
different  copies,  we  are  able  to  ascertain  the  original 
text  to  a  great  degree  of  exactness  ;  or,  in  other  words, 
where  various  readings  occur,  to  determine  what  were 
probably  the  words  of  the  author. 

The  Greek  manuscripts,  then,  of  any  one  of  the 


132  AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

Gospels,  the  versions  of  it,  and  the  quotations  from  it 
by  the  fathers,  are  all,  professedly,  copies  of  that 
Gospel,  or  of  parts  of  it ;  and  these  correspond  with 
each  other.  But,  as  these  professed  copies  thus  cor- 
respond with  each  other,  it  follows  that  they  were 
derived  more  or  less  remotely  from  one  archetype. 
Their  agreement  admits  of  no  explanation,  except 
that  of  their  being  conformed  to  a  common  exemplar. 
In  respect  to  each  of  the  Gospels,  the  copies  which  we 
possess  must  all  be  referred,  for  their  source,  to  one 
original  Gospel,  one  original  text,  one  original  manu- 
script. As  far  back  as  our  knowledge  extends. 
Christians,  throughout  all  past  ages,  in  Syria,  at 
Alexandria,  at  Rome,  at  Carthage,  at  Constantinople, 
and  at  Moscow,  in  the  East  and  in  the  West,  have  all 
used  copies  of  each  of  the  Gospels,  which  were  evi- 
dently derived  from  one  original  manuscript,  and 
necessarily  imply  that  such  a  manuscript,  existing  as 
their  archetype,  has  been  faithfully  copied." 

COLLECT. 
Blessed  Lord,  who  hast  caused  all  Holy  Scriptures 
to  be  written  for  our  learning  ;  Grant  that  we  may 
in  such  wise  hear  them,  read,  mark,  learn,  and  in- 
wardly digest  them,  that  by  patience  and  comfort 
of  thy  holy  Word,  we  may  embrace,  and  ever  hold 
fast  the  blessed  hope  of  everlasting  life,  which 
thou  hast  given  us  in  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 
Ame7i.  —  Book  of  Common  Praye?\ 


APPENDIX  A. 


It  would  not  readily  occur  to  the  mind  of  a  person, 
who  has  never  thought  on  the  subject,  that  the  knowledge 
of  an  event  can  be  preserved  without  writing  120  years,  by 
means  of  the  memories  of  two  men,  and  ^80  years  by  means 
of  the  memories  of  three  men.  The  authorship  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  can  probably  be  proved  to-day 
by  means  of  the  memories  of  the  elder  John  Adams  and  of 
his  grandson,  Charles  Francis  Adams.  John  Adams  was 
one  of  the  committee  to  whom  was  assigned  the  duty  by 
Congress  of  preparing  that  instrument.  He  undoubtedly 
knew  who  wrote  it.  He  would  be  apt  to  communicate  this 
knowledge  to  his  grandson,  Charles  Francis  Adams,  who 
was  nineteen  years  old  when  his  grandfather  died.  Charles 
Francis  was  born  in  1807,  and  is  still  living.  If  he  is  iu 
good  health  he  will  remember  what  his  grandfather  told 
him  about  the  drafting  of  so  celebrated  a  document.  He 
will  remember,  too,  what  his  grandfather  said  about  the 
conversations  he  held  at  various  times  with  old  Doctor 
Franklin,  who  was  born  in  1706.  Franklin  and  Adams 
were  often  associated  in  public  business.  The  Doctor,  in 
all  probability,  told  Mr.  Adams  many  things  connected  with 
his  early  life,  which  Mr.  Adams  would  be  apt  to  relate  to 
his  grandson  in  his  old  age.  A  man  is  still  living  who  told 
me  he  had  conversed  with  a  soldier  who  was  at  the  battle 
known  as  Braddock's  defeat —  a  battle  fought  between  the 
whites  and  Indians  in  1755.  Suppose  this  man  shonld  re- 
late to  some  young  men,  who  should  live  sixty  years  longer, 
the  accounts  of  the  battle  he  had  received  from  the  soldier. 
Such  account  could  be  transmitted  in  this  way  to  a  person 


134  APPENDIX. 

living  190  years  after  the  event.  Mr.  Ridlon,  in  his  "Intro- 
duction to  his  History  of  the  Ryedales,"  says:  ''  My  grand- 
father lived  contemporary  with  eight  generations  of  his 
family.  From  his  standpoint  he  could  look  backward  and 
remember  three  generations  of  his  predecessors;  looking 
downward,  he  could  see  four  generations  of  his  descend- 
ants, and  at  the  same  time  he  himself  was  the  connecting 
link  of  this  chain  between  the  first  three  and  last  four  gene- 
rations, making  eight  generations  in  all." 

No  writer  dates  the  birth  of  Irenajus  later  than  A.  D. 
140.  Now,  if  his  father  was  sixty  years  old  when  he  was 
born,  then  his  father  was  born  in  A.  D.  80,  and  if  his 
grandfather  was  sixty  years  old  when  his  father  was  born, 
then  his  grandfather  was  born  in  A.  D.  20  —  thirteen  years 
before  the  crucifixion.  It  would  not  have  been  impossible 
for  him  to  have  witnessed  that  event.  Not  only  so,  but  he 
may  very  easily  have  known  some  or  all  of  the  Apostles  and 
evangeUsts.  If  these  precise  facts  are  not  true  of  Irensus, 
there  is  a  grave  probability  that  they  may  have  been  true  of 
many  of  his  contemporaries.  The  grandfathers  of  many 
of  these  latter  may  have  been  present  at  the  crucifixion. 


APPENDIX  B. 


The  reader  may  be  interested  in  seeing  a  brief  synopsis 
of  two  or  three  Apocryphal  Gospels,  which  have  come 
down  to  us  from  the  second  and  third  centuries. 

The  Protevangelion  of  James  gives  an  account  of 
Joachim  and  Anna,  father  and  mother  of  the  Virgin  Mary ; 
of  the  birth  of  Mary,  and  her  education  in  the  temple  until 
she  was  twelve  years  old,  wlien  she  was  committed  by  the 
priests  to  the  care  of  Joseph,  an  old  man  and  father  of  seve- 
ral children ;  of  the  annunciation  to  Mary  by  an  angel  that 
she  was  about  to  become  the  mother  of  the  ' '  Son  of  the 
Most  High,''  and  should  call  his  name  "Jesus";  of  the 
great  distress  of  Joseph  when  he  discovered  the  condition 
in  which  Mary  was ;  of  the  appearance  of  an  angel  in  a 
dream,  who  relieved  his  mind  by  telling  him  that  Mary  was 
to  bring  forth  a  son  "who  should  save  His  people  from 
their  sins."  When  the  priest  discovered  the  condition  Mary 
■was  in,  he  caused  Joseph  and  Mary  to  be  brought  before 
him  and  accused  them  of  sinfulness,  which  they  denied  and 
asserted  their  innocence.  He  gave  each  of  them  ''  to  drink 
of  the  water  of  the  ordeal  of  the  Lord,"  and  sent  them 
away  to  the  liill  country,  and  they  returned  unhurt,"  when 
the  priest  said,  ' '  If  the  Lord  God  has  not  made  manifest 
your  sins,  neither  do  I  judge  you."  Joseph  and  Mary  went 
up  to  Bethleliem  to  be  enrolled,  under  an  order  from  tlie 
Emperor  Augustus,  and  when  within  three  miles  of  Bethle- 
hem Mary  requested  to  be  taken  down  from  the  ass,  and 
she  was  led  into  a  "cave,"  where  Jesus  was  born.  Magi 
from  the  East,  led  by  a  star  visit  and  worship  the  babe  in 
the  cave.     Herod  sent  men   to  murder  the  children  from 


136  APPENDIX. 

two  years  old  and  under.  Mary,  hearing  of  this,  was 
afraid,  and  took  the  infant  and  put  him  in  an  ox-stall.  And 
Elizabeth,  to  save  John,  took  him  up  into  the  hill  country, 
where,  in  answer  to  the  prayer  of  Elizabeth,  a  mountain 
■was  cleft  and  received  mother  and  child.  Herod,  not  find- 
ing John,  caused  Zacharias,  his  father,  to  be  murdered  near 
'the  altar,  where  "they  found  not  his  body  but  they  found 
his  blood  turned  into  stone."  This  celebrated  Gospel  ends 
here,  with  a  certificate  that  "I,  James,  wrote  this  history 
in  Jerusalem/'  etc. 

The  Arabic  Gospel  op  the  Infancy  relates  that  when 
Joseph  and  Mary  w^ere  on  their  way  up  to  Bethlehem  to  be 
enrolled,  Jesus  was  born  in  a  "  cave  "  and  placed  in  a  stall, 
and  circumcised  on  the  eighth  day  in  the  cave,  and  was 
visited  there  by  the  magi.  To  escape  the  fury  of  Herod, 
Joseph  and  Mary  took  the  child  into  Egypt.  When  pass- 
ing through  Egypt,  idols  fell  down  before  the  child,  "saj^- 
ing,  a  God  has  come  here  in  secret."  "Demons,  fleeing  in 
the  shape  of  ravens  and  serpents,  began  to  go  forth  out  of 
the  mouth  of  a  demoniac  boy."  A  demoniac  woman  Avas 
cured.  A  dumb  bride  was  cured  by  holding  Jesus  in  her 
arms.  Lepers  were  cured.  They  came  to  Memphis  and 
saw  Pharaoh,  and  remained  three  years  in  Egypt;  "and 
the  Lord  Jesus  did  in  Egypt  very  many  miracles,  which  are 
recorded  neither  in  the  Gospel  of  the  Infancy  nor  in  the 
perfect  Gospel."  After  three  years,  the  parents,  with  the 
child,  returned  to  Nazareth,  where  many  miracles  were 
wa-ought ;  many  of  them  unmeaning  and  frivolous,  as  when 
Jesus,  being  seven  years  old,  was  playing  with  the  boys 
and  making  images  of  asses,  oxen,  birds  and  other  animals, 
he  made  his  to  walk,  leap  or  stand  still  at  his  bidding;  he 
made  clay  sparrows  and  other  birds  to  fly ;  he  put  many 
pieces  of  cloth  into  a  "tub  full  of  indigo,"  and  each  piece 
came  out,  of  the  color  the  owner  wished.  Joseph  made 
doors,  milk-pails,  beds  and  cliests,  and  Jesus  by  stretching 
out  his  hand  would  make  them  longer  or  shorter  as  Joseph 


APPENDIX.  137 

wanted  them.  Some  of  his  many  miracles  were  mischiev- 
ous and  wicked ;  as  when  a  boy  ran  against  him  with  so 
much  force  that  he  fell,  he  said  to  the  boy  :  "As  thou  hast 
thrown  me  down,  so  thou  shalt  fall,  and  not  rise  again." 
And  the  same  hour  the  boy  fell  down  and  expired .  He 
was  sent  to  school,  but  taught  the  schoolmaster.  "When 
twelve  years  old,  he  went  up  to  Jerusalem  with  Joseph  and 
Mary  to  the  feast,  and  there  expounded  to  the  astronomers 
and  philosophers  in  the  temple  the  sciences  of  astronomy 
and  physics  and  metaphysics.  On  returning  to  Nazareth, 
he  began  to  hide  his  miracles  and  mysteries,  and  gave  at- 
tention to  the  law  until  his  thirtieth  year,  when  the  Fa- 
ther, at  the  Jordan,  "  by  a  voice  sent  down  from  heaven, 
declared  Him  to  be  His  beloved  Son."  This  Gospel  ends 
here.  It  calls  Mary  throughout  the  ''  Lady  "  Mary,  a  title 
never  given  her  by  writers  of  the  first  two  centuries. 

The  Gospel  of  Thomas,  in  the  two  forms,  the  Latin  and 
Greek,  relates  many  stories  of  the  pranks  and  tricks  of 
Jesus  in  his  school-boy  days,  some  of  which  were  irreve- 
rent and  some  malicious,  and  all  unmeaning,  except  to  ex- 
cite the  admiration  of  the  reader.  They  are  all  called 
miracles  by  the  writer.  He  made  clay  sparrows  to  fly ;  got 
angry  with  a  boy,  and  ' '  dried  him  up  "  like  a  dead  tree ; 
got  angry  with  another  for  running  against  him,  and  cursed 
him,  so  that  he  died.  The  parents  of  the  boys  complained 
to  Joseph  of  Jesus'  misconduct,  and  they  were  struck  blind. 
He  raised  a  dead  boy,  named  Zeno,  to  life ;  lengthened  or 
shortened  the  wood,  by  a  word,  for  Joseph  to  make  plows 
and  yokes;  went  to  school,  but  taught  the  schoolmaster; 
raised  a  dead  man  to  life;  and  when  twelve  years  old  went 
up  to  Jerusalem  to  the  feast  of  the  passover  with  Joseph 
and  Mary,  where  they  lost  sight  of  him,  and  after  three 
days'  search  for  him  he  was  found  in  the  temple,  sitting  in 
the  midst  of  the  teachers,  both  hearing  the  law  and  asking 
them  questions.  "And  Jesus  advanced  in  wisdom  and 
stature  and  grace."  Thus  ends  this  Gospel. 
18 


138  APPENDIX. 

The  Acts  of  Pilate,  called  also,  since  the  thirteenth 
century,  "The  Gospel  of  Nicodemus,"  gives  au  account  of 
the  trial  of  Jesus  before  Pilate ;  his  condemnation,  cruci- 
fixion, resurrection  and  ascension.  It  professes  to  be  writ- 
ten by  Nicodemus  in  Hebrew.  According  to  this  Gospel, 
the  official  authorities  of  the  Jews  accused  Jesus  before 
Pilate,  the  Governor,  that  whereas  they  knew  him  to 
be  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  born  out  of  wedlock,  he 
claimed  to  be  the  son  of  God  and  a  king ;  that  he  profaned 
the  Sabbath  by  healing  the  sick  and  casting  out  demons  on 
that  day ;  that  he  was  a  magician,  and  cast  out  demons  by 
Beelzebub,  the  j)rince  of  the  demons;  that  his  birth  in 
Bethlehem  was  the  cause  of  the  murder  of  the  infants  there. 
On  these  charges  Pilate  sent  an  officer  to  arrest  Jesus,  and 
he  was  arrested  and  brought  before  Pilate,  where  the  rulers 
of  the  synagogues  and  the  elders  clamored  for  his  death ; 
but  many  other  Jews  interceded  for  him,  and  gave  evidence 
in  his  favor.  Twelve  Jews  said  they  wei-e  present  at  the 
betrothal  of  Joseph  and  Mary.  Nicodemus  testified  to  the 
good  character  of  Jesus  and  his  performing  many  miracles ; 
a  certain  Jew  testified  he  had  been  sick  thirty-eight  years, 
and  was  cured  by  Jesus ;  another  said  he  was  born  blind, 
and  ' '  Jesus  put  his  hands  upon  my  eyes  and  I  instantly  re- 
ceived sight " ;  a  certain  woman  said,  "Iliad  au  issue  of 
blood  for  twelve  years,  and  I  touched  the  hem  of  his  gar- 
ment and  the  issue  of  blood  was  stopped."  Others  said, 
"He  raised  Lazarus  from  the  tomb  after  he  had  been 
dead  four  days."  Pilate  declared  he  found  no  fault  in 
Jesus,  and  sought  to  release  him,  and  rising  up  from 
the  tribunal,  he  sought  to  go  out;  but  tlie  Jews  cried 
out:  "Thou  art  no  friend  of  Ca3sar's  if  thou  release  this 
man,  because  he  called  himself  the  son  of  God  and  a 
king.  Let  him  be  crucified. "  Pilate  was  afraid,  and 
after  taking  water  and  washing  his  hands,  and  declaring, 
"I  am  innocent  of  the  death  of  this  just  man,"  he  said  to 


APPENDIX.  139 

Jesus:  "Thy  nation  has  charged  thee  with  being  a  king. 
On  this  account  I  sentence  thee,  first  to  be  scourged,  ac- 
cording to  the  enactment  of  venerable  kings,  and  then  to 
be  fastened  on  the  cross  in  the  garden  where  thou  wast 
seized ;  and  let  Dysmas  and  Gestas,  the  two  malefactors, 
be  crucified  with  thee." 

Josejih  of  Arimathea  begged  the  body  of  Jesus,  and  laid 
it  in  his  tomb,  and  at  the  request  of  the  hostile  Jews,  Pilate 
appointed  a  watch  to  guard  it.  But  the  Jews,  being  angry 
with  Joseph  for  what  he  had  done,  seized  and  locked  him 
in  a  room  and  stationed  a  guard  over  him,  intending  after 
the  Sabbath  to  murder  him.  But  Joseph  was  gone,  and 
the  seals  were  unbroken,  and  Caiaphas  had  the  key.  While 
the  Jews  were  wondering  at  his  escape,  some  of  the  guard 
over  the  tomb  of  Jesus  came  and  reported  that  there  had 
been  a  great  earthquake,  and  they  saw  an  angel  come  down 
from  heaven  and  roll  away  the  stone  from  the  mouth  of  the 
tomb  and  sit  upon  it,  and  they  heard  the  angel  tell  the  wo- 
men that  Jesus  was  risen.  The  Jews  said  to  the  guard, 
"We  do  not  believe  you."  The  guard  answered, '' We 
have  heard  that  you  locked  up  Joseph  and  put  a  seal  on  the 
door,  and  that  you  have  opened  it  and  not  found  him.  Do 
you,  then,  give  us  the  man  you  were  guarding,  and  we  will 
give  you  Jesus."  "  The  men  of  the  guard  said  to  the  Jews, 
'  And  Jesus  is  risen,  as  we  heard  from  the  angel,  and  is  in 
Galilee.'" 

And  Phineas,  a  priest,  and  Adas,  a  teacher,  and  Haggai, 
a  Levite,  came  from  Galilee  to  Jerusalem  and  reported  to 
the  Jews  that  "  tliey  had  seen  Jesus  and  his  disciples  sit- 
ting on  the  mountain  called  Mamileh."  And  on  the  advice 
of  Nicodemus,  the  Jews  sent  men  into  Galilee  and  other 
districts  to  find  Jesus,  and  they  could  not  find  him ;  but 
they  found  Joseph  at  Arimathea,  who,  at  the  solicitation  of 
the  Jews,  went  up  to  Jerusalem.  The  Jews,  after  making 
excuses  to  Joseph  for  locking  him  up,  asked  him  to  relate 
what  had  happened  to  him.     Joseph  said  he  remained  all 


I40  APPENDIX. 

the  Sabbath  locked  up,  but  about  midnight  a  bright '  light 
shone  around  him,  and  Jesus  appeared  to  hira,  and  took 
him  by  the  hand  and  placed  him  in  the  middle  of  his  house, 
and  left  him,  saying,  "I  go  to  my  brethren  in  Galilee.'' 
And  the  Jews  sent  men  again  into  Galilee,  who  again  in- 
quire of  Phineas,  Adas  and  Haggai,  separately  and  apart 
from  each  other,  and  they  concurred  in  saying:  "While 
Jesus  was  yet  sitting  on  the  mountain  Mamileh  and  teach- 
ing his  disciples,  we  saw  a  cloud  overshadowing  both  him 
and  his  disciples ;  and  the  cloud  took  him  up  into  heaven, 
and  the  disciiDles  lay  upon  their  faces  upon  the  earth." 

The  three  Gospels  first  above  named  give  an  account  of 
Joseph  and  Mary,  the  birth,  infancy  and  boyhood  of  Jesus. 
The  last  gives  an  account  of  the  trial  of  Jesus  before  Pilate, 
his  condemnation,  crucifixion,  resurrection  and  ascension. 
Neither  these,  nor  any  other  Apocryphal  Gospel  within  my 
knowledge,  gives  any  account  of  Jesus  between  the  time  he 
was  twelve  years  old  and  the  time  of  his  trial  and  cruci- 
fixion. The  only  account  we  have  of  his  public  ministry 
and  teachings  is  from  our  canonical  Gospels.  Tlie  Apocry- 
phal Gosjiels  which  we  have  named,  and  the  Pseudo-Mat- 
thew, and  others,  with  the  Acts  of  Philip  and  other  Apos- 
tles, are  published  in  the  Ante-Nicene  Christian  Library, 
vol.  XVI.  All  these  Gospels  and  Acts  were  written  as  late 
as  the  last  half  of  the  second  century  or  the  beginning  of 
the  third,  and  some  of  them  later.  Tischendorf  thinks 
the  Protevangelion  and  the  Acts  of  Pilate  were  written  in 
the  first  part  of  the  second  century. — Bate  of  the  Oospels, 
c.  3.  What  is  true  in  any  of  these  Gospels  was  taken  from 
ours.  A  few  facts  may  have  been  learned  from  tradition, 
such  as  that  Jesus  was  born  in  a  "cave"  and  made 
"ploughs." 


APPENDIX  C. 


According  to  ancient  writers  — 

Matthew,  called  also  Levi  {Luke^  5,  v.  27),  was  a  Jew, 
and  probably  a  Galilean.  He  was  toll  or  tax  collector  for 
the  Roman  government  at  Capernaum,  on  the  sea  of  Gali- 
lee.—  (J/rt<.,  9,  V.  9.)  Whilo  engaged  in  this  occupation, 
Jesus,  passing  by,  called  him  to  follow  Him,  which  he  im- 
mediately did,  and  became  one  of  the  twelve.  He  wrote  a 
Gospel  in  the  Hebrew  or  Aramaic  language,  which  goes 
under  his  name.  He  preached  the  Gospel  in  Judea,  Par- 
thia  and  Ethiopia.  Hippolytus  says:  "He  fell  asleep  at 
Hierees,  a  town  of  Parthia." 

Mark.  John  Mark,  though  a  Roman  by  name,  was  born 
of  Jewish  parents  residing  in  Jerusalem.  When  Peter  was 
delivered  out  of  prison  by  an  angel,  "  he  came  to  the  house 
of  Mary,  the  mother  of  John,  whose  surname  was  Mark." — 
AcU,  13,  V.  12.  He  became  the  companion  of  Peter  in  his 
travels,  and  is  called  by  Irenceus  and  other  ancient  writers, 
the  amanuensis  or  "interpreter"  of  Peter. —  B.  IH,  c.  1. 
He  wrote  a  Gospel,  which  is  called  after  his  name,  and  in 
which,  according  to  Papias  and  Irenajus,  "  he  handed  down 
to  us  what  had  been  preached  by  Peter."  He  was  the  first 
bishop  of  the  church  in  Alexandria,  in  Egypt,  but  not  an 
Apostle,  and  suffered  martyrdom  in  that  city. — E.  H.  E., 
B.  H,  c.  16. 

Luke,  called  by  Paul  the  beloved  physician  {Col.,  4,  v. 
14),  was  born  and  educated  in  Antioch,  in  Syria.  Eusebius 
says  he  was  a  physician  by  profession. —  B.  Ill,  c.  4.  He 
became  the  companion  of  Paul  in  his  travels,  and  wrote  the 
Gospel  called  after  his  name,  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 


142  APPENDIX. 

The  Gosj^el  was  sometimes  called  by  tlie  ancients  Paul's 
Gospel. —  Tertullian,  B.  IV,  c.  5.  He  was  not  one  of  the 
twelve  Apostles.  Modern  writers  have  attributed  to  him 
skill  in  painting,  and  the  jjainting  of  one  or  more  pictures 
of  the  Virgin  Mary;  but  this  is  fabulous.  Tlie  place,  man- 
ner and  time  of  his  death  are  unknown. 

John,  the  son  of  Zebedee  and  Salome,  and  brother  of 
James,  was  born,  probably,  at  Bethsaida,  on  the  sea  of 
Galilee,  where  Andrew  and  Simon  were  also  born,  and 
where  his  father  followed  the  occupation  of  a  fisherman. — 
Mat.,  4,  V.  21  and  23.  He  is  supposed  to  have  been  about 
twenty-five  years  of  age  when  he  began  to  follow  Jesus  and 
became  one  of  the  twelve.  His  father  was  not,  probably, 
entirely  poor,  as  he  kept  hired  servants. — Marl;  1,  v.  20. 
John  himself  owned  a  house,  which  became  the  home  of 
the  Virgin  Mary  after  the  crucifixion. — John,  19,  v.  27.  He 
witnessed  the  transfiguration  of  Jesus;  was  with  Him  in 
the  garden  and  at  the  cross,  and  one  of  the  first  to  visit  the 
sepulchre  after  the  resurrection.  After  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem  he  removed  to  Ephesus,  in  Asia  Minor.  From 
this  point  he  supervised  the  churches  in  his  neighborhood 
for  a  considerable  number  of  years ;  wrote  the  Revelation 
and  the  Gospel  called  after  his  name.  He  lived  to  a  very 
advanced  age,  and  died  at  Ephesus  in  the  reign  of  Trajan, 
who  succeeded  Nero,  in  the  year  98. — Irenceus,  B.  HI,  c.  3, 
§  4.  Polycrates,  bishop  of  Ephesus,  in  the  year  196,  asserts 
that  John  was  buried  in  that  city. — E.  H.  E.,  B.  Ill,  c.  31. 


Date  Due 


Ja 


Si 


